Dear Pastor’s Wife,

     Psalm 141:3 “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

     This verse should just be the “pastor’s wives prayer” shouldn’t it? 🙂 Oh, how many times we need to hold our tongues and only release words of grace! We need it first in our homes with our families, and then in our ministries and work places.  We are caught off guard at church by conversations, and return home wondering if we said what we should have, or in the right tone…and did it come across the right way? Whew…tailspins happen here! I find it interesting that David did not seem confident of his own abilities to keep his own “mouth-door.” He recognized his tendencies to fail and he begged God to keep the watch for him. When the watch is kept…when the words are held back, we are ultimately better off and our lives please God.

     I’m sure that you, as a pastor’s wife, have been in situations where the tongue of another was let loose and by the time they were done, you felt reduced to nothing.  Sometimes we think that the giver of words went home satisfied and continued to be so, while we processed the barrage of syllables that made up words that made up thoughts and made up pain. Someone left their door ajar…and while there may be a temporary relief and satisfaction from getting something off of their chest, we know that, according to God’s ways, they will suffer the consequences of their door left ajar. They will reap the harvest of their hurtful words.

     And so will we reap the harvest of our words.

     Somehow I think that David had learned this the hard way {don’t we all at one time or another}, and he knew the contrast between the remorse of the mouth door left ajar, and the joy and peace of the mouth door that was kept and guarded by God Himself.

     Amazing thought, there. God will keep the door of your lips! Just ask Him. The joy that you receive from a locked mouth will be greater than any satisfaction of speaking your mind.  Let’s use our mouth-doors to build up and encourage, even in tough situations. The blessings from that tiny, repeated choice will reap dividends for years to come, and into eternity. Now that’s worth shutting the door for!

XOXO,

 A Kindred Spirit

P.S. I am so blessed to have you in my life!