Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4 verse 29 (NIV).
What is the sound that comes out of your mouth?
Earlier this year, I believe the Lord asked me: What is the sound that is going to come out of your mouth this year? I thought, Wow, that’s a big question. Are you like me when some days everything that comes out of my mouth sounds good and pleasing to those around? And other days where some words that come out of my mouth are unnecessarily unkind ? This isn’t how we want to talk to others or ourselves but somehow we find ourselves doing this. (Romans 7 verses 14-25).
Are you happy with the soundtrack of your life?
During my childhood and early adult years, it was common to hear music played on “the stereo”. We heard music on a record player turntable. (Some of you will be familiar with this). Long playing records, LP’s for short were circles of vinyl played on the record player and they would play several tracks of music. To get the soundtrack out, a special very tiny and very fine needle that would be carefully lowered onto the record and the sound would be played. This needle was attached at the end of a lever. The needle very sensitive and picked up every little sound that was imprinted in the record. If there was a bit of ‘interference’, if the sound wasn’t very clear sometimes, you’d lift up the lever and examine the needle. Inevitably, there was a bit of fluff or dust on the needle. Again it was a very delicate operation to remove that dust without damaging the needle. This got me thinking about sound tracks. I wonder if the soundtrack that’s going on in your life has reached a point where some negative staff has gathered on the veritable needle of your life? Is the sound that you’re hearing a bit scratchy?
It made quite a bit of difference to take the fluff off the needle. Gently lowering the needle back down onto that particular track and to hear the sound come through clear and loud was great. It’s clean, it’s sharp, it’s able to be communicated without sounding abrasive.
Is there interference on the needle of your life?
But today it can be the day that you take the fluff off the needle. What is it that’s making you scratchy? What is it thats making that sound in your life come through like its constantly irritated?
Is it time to clean the entire record?
Another thing that we used to have to do was to take the record off the actual turntable and we would carefully dust it with a very special cleaning cloth. Somehow dust just appears on records. Once that dust was removed and the fluff taken off the needle, what a sound! The sound was great, exactly how we liked it and we enjoyed what we listened to.
If you were to listen to the sound that is coming out of your mouth today, what would you be saying?
“Oh, I’m just useless, I can never do anything right, I’m fat and ugly! “
What if you were gentle with yourself, just in the same way as you had to be very gentle taking the fluff off that needle? And what if you very gently wiped that record- that sound track of your life, free of dust?
Friends, our tounges are like the needle on the record. Our words carry the power of life and death- we know this scripture well. With each word we speak, we are recording a record. The soundtrack of our life will be replayed back to us one day. We have the opportunity today and every day, to look over the record that we are producing and examining it for pops and interference, by cleaning the needle and cleaning the record.
And we can also go to our Maker, He who has cleansed the record of sin in our lives with His precious blood. He is the ultimate record producer, pointing out anything that prevents a clear and clean soundtrack of our life.