Out of the Heart

Out of the heart the mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45 The good person out of the treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the hear that the mouth speaks.

What is in your heart? Anger, cynicism, pride . . . be warned. There are a host of unlovely attitudes that, if not checked, will season your conversation.

I was reminded this week how these little attitudes can sneak into our hearts unnoticed. If we let them hang around long enough, we are on a sure path to saying something hurtful. Often it isn’t the words that are the problem. It is the tone. When we have one of these little attitudes sitting on our heart’s throne, our tone changes. The words may be innoculous enough, but how we say them will determine whether they are a sweet sound or a clanging gong in the recipients ears.

The beginning of the story: Irritation caused by a combination of life circumstances was escalating. I was frustrated, not about one thing, really about many things, some related, some totally unrelated. As the week progressed the tension inside was building. I was becoming more and more agitated and my defenses came down. Cynicism and anger found an open door and took up residence in my heart.

The middle of the story is not terribly important. The end of the story is simple. Those little attitudes came through in my tone and I hurt someone I never intended to hurt. When this individual lashed back I was incredulous, and hurt. Her response to me was mean. But the Holy Spirit did not want me to dwell on her reaction. He had other plans. He wanted me to see the truth. He wanted me to recognize that I was responsible for her reaction. He opened up my heart and I saw the anger and cynicism that were sitting there grinning at me. They were fairly pleased with themselves. I was broken.

Those two little imps aren’t so happy now. They’ve been kicked off their comfy couch and put in their place. And I, I am so glad that God’s grace is sufficient, for the times when we set out in defiance to live outside of his will and for the times when disobedience sneaks up on us in the form of little attitudes that take uninvited control and cause big problems.

So dear ones, watch your words, but watch your heart even closer.