saying uncharitable things

/ Eric Mathews

Plain_home_talk_about_the_human_system-the_habits_of_men_and_women-the_cause_and_prevention_of_disease-our_sexual_relations_and_social_natures_(1896)_(14764456295)
image by Internet Archive Book Images, via Wikimedia Commons

Dear Lord please make my mind vigilant about my lack of charity.
I say many many too many uncharitable things about people everyday.
I say them because they make me look clever.
Please help me to realize practically how cheap this is.
I have nothing to be proud of yet myself.
I am stupid, quite as stupid as the people I ridicule.
Please help me to stop this selfishness because I love you, dear God.
I don’t want to be all excuses though. I am not much.
Please help me do Your Word oh Lord.

Flannery O’Conner, 1925 – 1964, American Catholic writer,
A Prayer Journal, slightly edited, written when she was 22

____________________

No human being can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father,
   and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

 

One thought on “saying uncharitable things”

  1. Not only does this prayer align so well with James 3 but Psalm 15 also comes to mind. Then, of course, there are so many Proverbs which reference the use of our tongues.

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