Tis the Season.....for Spittin'???

Ah, summer…..that wonderful, lazy, hazy time of year when there’s an abundance of local produce for us to choose from --including watermelon! Gotta LOVE that! This year, we planted some of those smaller, personal-sized watermelons -I think they’re called “sugar babies”??? --anyway, I just can’t wait ‘til they’re ripe. Nothing better after a summer dinner than a cold slice of watermelon --it’s so refreshing after a hot, humid day.

And, of course, what goes along with eating watermelon? Why, the seed-spittin’ of course! How many of us have childhood memories of seed-spitting contests, pitting cousin against cousin, friend against friend? Who could spit their’s the farthest? Who could hit a paper-plate target? And of course you HAD to spit the seeds out; we were told that a watermelon would grow in our stomachs if we didn’t…wasn’t sure about that one, but didn’t want to find out…..;)

“Life and death are in the power of the tongue…” --Prov. 18:21
“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” --Luke 6:45

Our words can be looked at like those watermelon seeds. Sometimes they’re just spit out into the air in general, sometimes they have a direct target. But, in whichever case, our words do take root and grow something.

Are we being cautious of what’s coming out of our mouths? Do you speak with purpose? Jesus said to let our yays be yay and our nays be nay. Be succinct. Don’t just blather on, just to fill up space in the room. Be purposeful in your conversation. Do you find yourself just going on and on in a conversation, and in your mind you’re thinking, “why can’t I just stop talking?” Yes, I can be like that sometimes. But, my wise husband has taught me over the years to rein myself in --I do not have to fill up the room just because no one else is talking. And I don’t have to give complete explanations for why something is being done (or not done). Yes, that does mean that less conversations are taking place, but the ones that do are actually more edifying, encouraging, and helpful. Ephesians 5 talks about that.

And what about how we speak to people? Do you speak to build someone up? To encourage them? To help them through a crisis situation? That takes purpose of mind to do most of the time. Just throwing a platitude or an insult out into the air does not take much thought at all; but we then spend a huge amount of time trying to take back the hurtful word spoken, and restore a relationship. So much unnecessary “farming”…

What are your words growing?

And what will your thoughts be the next time you slice open that red, ripe watermelon? Happy Summer!