Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of Words That Hurt, Words That Heal, states that he asks audiences whether they can go 24 hours without saying any unkind words about or to anyone. Invariably, very few people answer “yes.”
Here’s my challenge. Commit to going the next 24 hours without doing any of the following:
- Criticizing your spouse
- Complaining about your job
- Criticizing your church
- Using sarcasm in a hurtful way
- Complaining about someone else’s decisions
- Criticizing your government
Our Lord’s brother had a keen understanding about the tongue. May his words sink in today: “The tongue is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire” (James 3:6).
Recovery Step: Pray this new form of the Serenity Prayer. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me.”
