Tame What We Cannot Tame

Father, James tells us that no human being can tame the tongue, and we know it is true because we have tried. We have resolved to speak gently and been sharp by noon. We have praised you and then cursed the people you made in your likeness, sometimes on the same day, sometimes in the same hour. We are ashamed of the fires we have started, the ones we saw and the ones we never learned about.

What we cannot tame, you can. Change the spring so the water changes. Put a guard over our mouths today, and give us a moment's pause before the reply, the joke, the correction, the complaint. Make us quick to listen and slow to speak. Where we have burned someone, show us, and give us the humility to go back and say so. And fill our mouths with the other thing the tongue can do, with blessing, with truth spoken kindly, with encouragement that builds a person up. Let our words be sweet water, because you have made us new. Amen.