...and then you kept apologizing profusely for that little mean thing?
I have. And I've found it's impossible simply to "undo" the harm I've done with even just a few careless words.
It's for this reason that I have found the following to be true:
If you Google "apologizes for comments," you'll see over seven million results detailing cautionary tales of people trying to repair damage they've done with their tongues.
As I look through those results, it's crazy to think there are, beside all the celebrities, thousands of people whose names I now know only because they said something stupid.
But that's the power the tongue has. Any given day, I can absolutely ruin my life simply by opening my mouth (and end up in those Google results.)
That's exactly what James said. He tells us the tongue is actually a world of evil among the parts of your body.
I know my tendency to make careless jokes or to make too many promises or to gossip. James reminds me that when I do this, I'm playing with fire.
My prayer today is that next time I am tempted to play with fire, I do this instead.
And my prayer today is that the Spirit could help me to become "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." (James 1:19)
Because I want to keep the flames far away from the forest of my life.
