Hey friends,
When I speak, my words can tend to sound harsh.
I don’t mean it to be.
But saying something in the wrong manner can hurt.
I can feel that slight hint of conviction when I haven’t said something in the right frame of mind…or even in the right setting.
Proverbs does not treat speech as small talk.
It treats it as harvest.
We eat the fruit of our own mouth.
So I wrote an acrostic poem to help me think and pray on it.
Not as a cute device.
As a confession I needed to hang on the wall of my heart.
Which fruit am I growing when I open my mouth?
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AI prompt: Wide 16:9 cream parchment, deep teal and antique gold. An at-rest human mouth, gold breath becoming harvest — rotten fruit on the left, living figs and wheat on the right. Gold lettering across the bottom: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Oil-and-ink sacred still life, no glow, no cartoon, title space at top, cinematic, reverent.
WHICH FRUIT
When I speak
How should I say it
Inclined to be harsh
Cutting deep to the heart
Habitual I admit
Forgetting those ways
Relinquishing my tongue
Under Your power and breath
Instead of rotten death
Tasty fruit is sprung
~ Jennifer Leigh Nelson
Proverbs 18:20–21
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Proverbs 18:20–21
With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied;
He will be satisfied with the product of his lips.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Will I be satisfied with death or life?
Taking control of my tongue is not the same as keeping it shut.
It is thinking about what needs to be said, then placing the love of God in the midst of it.
That is what brings good fruit.
That is what releases conviction.
Harshness is often a habit wearing the costume of honesty.
We tell ourselves we are “just being real.”
Sometimes we are.
Sometimes, we are releasing inner pain and turmoil, then calling it truth.
The slight conviction is a mercy.
It is the Spirit reminding me of the Word: this negative harvest does not satisfy.
Relinquishing the tongue under His power and breath is not silence for silence’s sake.
It is surrender.
The same mouth that can cut deep to the heart can also plant something living.
Tasty fruit is sprung, not by trying harder to sound nice, but by yielding the instrument.
Prayer
Lord, when I speak, help it not be spoken from inner pain and turmoil, or my own selfish thoughts. But let me relinquish my thoughts and tongue to You to give others life. Amen.
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Thoughts for Today
Where did your last hard sentence come from: truth offered in love, or pain looking for an exit?
If that sentence had been spoken to you, would it have left a feeling of life or a pit of death?
What would it look like this week to ask, before you speak: How should I say it?
You don’t have to hinder the truth.
You do have to yield the tongue to Holy Spirit.
I’m learning with you,
Jennifer Leigh Nelson
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