Finding Truth

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I’ve had trouble with my tongue for a long time.  Ever since way back, it just won’t behave! (Ok, so those of you who have known me since back then, you’re nodding your heads and have great big smiles on your faces right about now!)  More often than not, I have walked around with not only one, but with both feet stuck right smack-dab in the middle of my mouth.  At times I’ve felt as if I’m the only one who understands what I’m saying, like nobody understands my language.  Adding fuel to the “fire,” it seems that once we’ve been misunderstood a time or two, our next efforts at communication tend to overcompensate for that.  We try hard not to be misunderstood again.  But somehow, through the extensive verbiage that comes out of our mouths in an effort not to be misunderstood, we dig the hole even deeper.  The more words we speak, the deeper the hole gets.  Ever been there?  Of course you have.  Trust me … I understand!

If you’re in a hole, quit digging!  I’ve told God before that my mouth was just too far out of control, and I didn’t want to talk any more.  The least He could do was give me some duct tape for my mouth!  But thank God, He didn’t answer that prayer.  He had better things in store for me.  He didn’t want to shut my mouth, He wanted to heal it!  He wanted to give me something better than duct tape … He wanted to give me truth.

Truth can drastically change the words of our mouths.  Speaking words of truth can even miraculously change the course of our very lives.  No, I’m not talking about the kind of truth that says unkind things, like, “Honey, your new hairdo is ugly,” or “Man, you did a terrible job!”  While statements like that may sometimes be the truth, they are not spoken with love that’s meant to teach, encourage, uplift and edify the one spoken to.

What I’m talking about here is learning and growing … replacing the misunderstandings, misconceptions, deceptions and lies that we have all fallen prey to and believed, with truth.  Why?  Because truth will set us free!

God wants us to know truth.  He has given us the means to examine our patterns and ways of thinking, so that we can weed out what’s wrong and replace it with truth.  The healing we come to know in learning truth can then lead to the restoration of not only ourselves, but also our relationships that have been tainted by misunderstandings.  The end result will lead us on to functioning together, as we were created to do, as one Body … the Body of Christ.