Since this is my first blog, I would like to introduce myself, for those who don’t know me.
I’m not famous so I would assume that most people don’t know me! Lol. (Yes, I was
born in 1979 so I still type lol!). My name is Rob and I am blessed with a lovely and
wonderful wife and three awesome children. All are definitely blessings from God. I’m
going to give you a little bit of a backstory on me before I jump into my first topic.
I was born into a wonderful loving family of hard-working people, a few who were
entrepreneurial and self-employed, namely, my grandfather, and my dad. The other side
of that coin is the hard-working ladies that had a large part in raising me as well, that
would be my mother and my grandmother.
I experienced my salvation encounter with the Lord in 2011. On that day, in that church,
my wife, and I finally heard from the Lord and responded to his wonderful, love, grace,
and mercy! Since then our lives have been a whirlwind of service to God’s kingdom in
both the church where we got saved, and now here in Greenville.
With the whirlwind that is our life, we are getting ready to enter a new chapter. Our
oldest has just turned 18 and is in his last year of high school. Our middle, and our only
daughter (so when you put both of those together, you know what kind of temperament
attitude we have to deal with! Lol! Just kidding… Kind of), is entering into her junior year
of high school. And last but not least, our other son begins eighth grade this year.
It has been a fun and wild ride for sure. Lots of great time and memories. But of course,
as I reflect, I also think about my failures. You know, it stinks not being a perfect person!
I’m not a perfect husband or father or son… Or anything for that matter! One thing I do
know that is that I love the Lord and I love all of my family. Because of that one of the
things that I tried to do in the mornings before everybody rushes out the door to school
is to do a short devotional with all of us together. I bring that up because that is what my
topic is for the day… The power of the tongue. That devotional which I read to my family
the other day talked about how many muscle groups athletes use while they are
participating in sports, and then asked the question: which one do you think is the
strongest? The author of this certain devotional brought it back to the tongue, and just
how powerful the Bible relates to us that it is. James wrote this in the third chapter of his
letter, beginning in verse eight it says the following:
but no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.
With it, we bless our Lord and father, and with it we curse men, who have been
made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come, both blessing and
cursing. My brother, these things ought not to be this way. (James 3:8-10)
This verse dovetails right off of what Jesus explained to us in Matthew 15:11, where He
stated that it is not what goes into the mouth of a man that defiles him, but what comes out of the mouth of a man, because what comes out of the mouth of a man is truly what
is in his heart.
It’s a powerful reminder to us to pay attention to what we say, because words carry
great meaning, and God gave us language to be able to relate with one another and we
should relate to one another as those created in the image of God. The God who loves
us and cares for us. Now, if you’re like me, you read the first part of the first verse that I
listed in James and you’re asking: but if no one can tame the tongue then what am I
supposed to do? That’s a great point. And I believe that no man, by their own power,
can tame themselves, the tongue included. I believe it’s only by the power of God
through the Holy Spirit working in us that enables us to be able to do such things. Which
is why it is so vitally important that our relationship with Jesus is as close as it can be.
So, please allow me to sign off with this because maybe your next question is: well how
am I supposed to draw closer to Jesus? The tangible things that we can do in life are to
pray through and study through the word of God and to fellowship with other believers.
So I encourage you: read your Bible, pray, go to church! And I must say this as well, not
just any church, but a church that truly preaches and teaches the Word of God.
My blogs will generally be shorter than this, but I wanted to give you a little background
to my story. My goal for these blogs is just to share some insight either from what I’ve
experienced through the week or something that I’ve read that jumps out at me, and in
every case, to relate everything back to the kingdom. Have a great week and God
bless!