T.H.I.N.K.*

This is a repost from my other site from October 2016.
Think before you speak. T. is it true?  H. is it helpful or honest?  I. does it inspire?  N. is it necessary? K is it kind?   For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. James 3:2   Most of the time for my blogs I use the ESV Bible, as I have above. 
 We all stumble, especially when it comes to the words we speak. But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. Matthew 15:18-19 
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32  I am not sure I have original thoughts, this blog, as well as many others, stems from things I heard others say. I do try to make it my own. I laugh when they accuse Melania Trump of stealing words from Michelle Obama's speech. How many of us do not repeat thoughts if not exact words?  These words are not original with me. I remember stuff from sermons 20 years ago. Am I stealing when I use a thought or repeat words I heard from someone else? Slander today is so commonplace. Slander comes from the heart, and the scripture above also tells us to put it away from us.  I think half if not more of the political advertisements and posts we see on facebook amount to slander. My daughter some time ago commented on a facebook post of mine, what possible purpose did I have for posting it. I deleted it, the only thing I could think of for that post was literal shock value. Our tongue can do so much damage. Our tongue can also bless and encourage others. I like the acronym THINK, I just heard it today. Perhaps I can use it to write better blogs. I hope to encourage and build up. God help us in this country where half of what we hear and post on facebook is slander. Most times we have no idea if it is true. The Bible certainly has some good instruction for us regarding the use of our tongues. Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. I have reposted very few posts on facebook in recent weeks and have reverted to posting at least one scripture verse each day. I was so tired of the garbage I received on facebook daily and wanted to do something different. We get calloused after a while. I showed a post about South Park to my fellow Nehemiah's men a few days ago. I was embarrassed. It was making fun of the last presidential debate. I had forgotten how many bleeps were in the video. We can get so calloused that we don't notice what we are listening to. Here I was in the Church building playing this video with bleep after bleep. Let us not slander but be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving with our words. God bless, LVZ.