Friday 12 December 2008

Watch your tongue!

It's a stupid thing to say! Watch your tongue? You need to be a contortionist or look in the mirror to watch your tongue! Bite your tongue? Ouch!

I was at Currie High School on Monday evening. We had tickets for Back to the Eighties, this year's school Christmas show. The story line wasn't the most complicated plot ever to be devised, but more of an excuse to join up as many Eighties' songs as you could fit into 2 hours and a bit. It was performed with great enthusiasm and gusto. More than 50 pupils, ably aided and abetted by a few teachers, performed the show, ran the sound and lighting, sold the programmes and so on.

Thursday and Friday saw me visit the Primary School and the School Nursery for Nativity Plays. The Primary 2 classes performed Born in the Barn with a wonderful enthusiasm and sense of fun and the Nursery were just themselves, charming the socks off their parents. One of the kings left with his crown upside down; the innkeeper was trying to take the lantern to bits to see how it worked; and Mary and Joseph put the presents from the wise men into the manger and crushed the Baby!

All credit to two groups of people who are much-maligned at times - young people and school teachers. We write off our young people so easily, effectively tarring everyone with the brush of bad publicity that comes from the small minority of young people whose stories hit the news headlines for all the wrong reasons. We criticise our school teachers for producing the same young people! Yet, every time I visit school, which is always for an hour at the most, I'm glad that I can leave after an hour. I could not do their job and I have enormous respect for those who do what I know I could not do.

There is a prayer that comes from Native American culture that goes something like this: "Do not criticise your brother till you have walked a mile in his moccasins." It is easy to have a view or an opinion about all kinds of things without really knowing what we're talking about and once it has been said, it cannot be unsaid. Little wonder James describes the tongue as "a fire" and "a restless evil." No wonder we were advised to watch it or bite it!

A dying man invited his friend to come to visit him. He knew that he was dying, but he had something that he needed to say. When his friend came to the house, he gave him a feather pillow and asked him to empty it all over the floor. His friend thought this a very strange request, but to honour the dying man's wish he complied. Once the feathers were all over the floor, his friend said "now pick up all these feathers for me!" His friend said "That's not possible; I can't pick them all up; there are too many and they are well-scattered." The man said "But that's what you did to me; you criticised me needlessly to my friends when you spoke things about me that were not true; you took away my good name and reputation and once you did that it could not be given back to me."

Christians are supposed to be caring people, but I am constantly amazed at the thoughtless and hurtful things that Christians will say to one another and to other people. It can never be unsaid; once it is out, it out for good. You may have an opinion, but think carefully before you express it and to whom you express it. You may criticise if you are so moved, but before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their moccasins; look at life from where they sit.

Watch your tongue and bite it - you can't do them both at the same time, can you?