Easy Thoughts & Hard Words

To those trying,

I have a problem…

My tongue doesn’t work.

For those of you who know me, you know that I posses the very “unique” and very strange ability to think of things. Whether I’m thinking of things on the go or pondering random questions such as, “why is it that feet smell and noses run?”, I’m never short on words. Even my top strength on our mandatory strength test came back as ideation: the ability to think of ideas. Yet as much as I am able to “think” of things, I have a much harder time actually saying them. It seems to be that every time I want to say something encouraging or complementary my tongue gets cold feet. Try as I may no amount of will power will get my mouth’s factory to reboot. It’s as if I am incapable of complimenting someone else.

But here is the kicker… I seem to not have any problem boasting about my accomplishments, my characteristics, or myself to other people?

I think the reason I (and so many others) struggle with complimenting other people is because we don’t want to praise other peoples abilities because we feel as if it makes us weak, vulnerable, or is somehow a confession of what we are not or what we can’t do. Somewhere in history a detrimental change occurred; a change in which using your mouth to bless someone instead of curse someone is a cultural blasphemy. Think about it. When is the last time you’ve heard someone compliment you? Why is it that most people have to go further back then their last conversation to find a sliver of encouragement?

 

2,000 years ago a man by the name of James recognized our tongues tendencies to spit our fire instead of love when he says in James 3:6 that the tongue “is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

 

I end just how I begin… I have a problem… my tongue doesn’t work…

However, just because my tongue tries to destroy doesn’t mean it’s incapable of building.

All it takes is practice…

Julianne you are beautiful in the most complete definition know to man and I am beyond glad that you’re not only in my life but a part of it.

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” James 3:9-11, NIV