Psalm 71:8

"My mouth is filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all day long."

if my mouth is full of this all day long, then everything I say either needs to be in line with that or there is no room for it. 

James 3:8-12
"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 brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?
Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce olives?  Nor can salt water produce fresh."

even in the same chapter, the author repeats this thought of praising God.

vs. 14 & 15
"But as for me, I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And of Your salvation all day long;
For I do not know the sum of them."

vs. 23 & 24
"My lips will shout for joy when i sing praises to You;
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long;"

Even look back to some of the commandments given to the Children of Isreal.

Duet 6:6-9
"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to you sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on you hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

 not saying that we need to be like the Pharisee's who would liturally put little boxes of scripture on their foreheads to appear holy.  but do people hear you praise the Lord?  the praise of our God, the Word of the Lord, should be so much on our mind that it's always coming out of our mouth. 

Even Isaac's Bible verse for church reflects this.

 Psalm 104:33
"I will sing to the Lord all my life..."

think about what comes out of your mouth.  focus on not just cutting out the bad things, but even the neutral things that don't line up with these verses.  i was convicted today about telling Christian to "take a chill pill."  not bad, but the attitude behind it is sassy and irritated and not God honoring.  that is a personal conviction.  it is all between you and God what you do and don't say.  but maybe, we need to take it a step farther than we did in the past.  maybe, we need to demand more this day.  maybe, we need to require a higher standard, so that we might honor God more today than we did yesterday.  that is the goal... right?

this earthly body...

i've been thinking and convicted...
i follow the blog of an unbeliever (several actually, this is just one of them).  she writes about some fashion.  you know, clothing & shoes & accessories & etc.  she also writes about... how do i sum it up...  "body image" i think is the term i heard her say.  the name of her blog is already pretty.  and today she had this post. 

now, i don't agree with everything she says.  she is obviously very convinced that self esteem is important and we know that all men are sinners and thus are nothing good without the Lord in their life.  i'm not having a pity party, i'm simply being honest and accepting what God has said in the Bible. 

But i did find it interesting that she has a good outlook on disregarding the worlds standards of beauty.  it's interesting that an unbeliever is more content with her flaws than many believers i know.  and that makes me a little bit sad. 

we know that God formed us ever so carefully.  that His sovereign power brought us to where we are in life.  that everything we are is because of Him.  and yet we bemoan the state of our body. 

please don't be confused.  there is nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy and lose weight to feel better.  i'm not talking about that.  i'm talking about the complaining & the comparing.  You are not Heidi Clume because God didn't make you her, so stop comparing yourself to her.  what difference does it make what number is printed on the tag of your jeans.   

let us have speech that is seasoned with salt.  let us not compare ourselves to the girl sitting in the pew in front of us.  and let us make sure we aren't moaning about what we look like.  remember, child of the Most High Lord...this is a temporary body.  :)