I Understand....(not)

It saddened me today when I read Nathan's blog about the hurtful and downright mean things people were 'saying' to him as he put voice to this incredible journey that he and his family have embarked upon. As a person who has worked with kids most of my adult life, I have noticed and many times commented that "kids are mean", because they haven't learned the social inhibitions that keep us from saying hurtful things. They hold out their friendship to someone, then withdraw it if the 'friend' does or does not do something thing that disagrees or agrees with them and feeds their selfishness and ego. Supposedly, with positive guidance and teacher/parent/adult training (not necessarily in that order) we can steer them to the understanding that words DO hurt, sometimes more than sticks and stones. This process takes time, and we, as teachers, often don't see the end results, but we work toward that goal in any case.
Evidently, this isn't a new problem, because there are many places in the Bible where God addesses the way we speak to each other..."let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth...only that which is good for building up of the saints" (BV)* "let no backbiting, slander or gossip..." " the tongue is like a tiny rudder that steers the whole ship"...I could go on and on, but my time is short.
Often, even though we have physical age on us, our emotional age is still that of a young child. We end up being selfish, and taking an "I can't help it...I've got to say what's inside" attitude. Thank God for spiritual leaders that help give us that positive guidance and training to help us 'learn' how powerful our words are.
Today, my prayer is "may the words of mouth, and the thoughts of my heart, bless YOUR name, bless your name, Jesus....may the deeds of the day, and the truth of my way, speak of YOU, speak of you, Jesus."
(*BV=Bonnie's version..paraphrased)