For a number of years, I umpired Little League and High School baseball. In the first six years and 99% of the games in year seven, I never had to throw a coach out of a game. But in the championship game of the last all-star tournament of the season one coach had a couple of calls go against him and came out to argue. I let him vent for a moment and then calmly told him he had to go back to the bench. I understand questioning my judgment on the call, and usually listening for a minute calms the situation. But then he accused me of working for the other team, challenging my integrity. At that point I politely invited him to be more constructive with his feedback and gave him the rest of the afternoon off, to contemplate how he might handle future situations in a more productive manner.

The Bible describes the tongue as a restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:8). It also says that we’re going to have to give an account for every careless word we speak (Matthew 12:36). Statistics show that the average person speaks 11 million words per year. How many of those words are carelessly spoken?

In this season of fasting and sacrifice, pray that you can cut out more than just dessert or coffee. Pray that you will be able to cut out the careless words from your speech. Not only will you keep from doing as much harm with them, but it will be less that you’ll have to answer for when you stand before the Lord.