{"id":375,"date":"2018-12-11T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/our-christmas-fire\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:16:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:16:00","slug":"our-christmas-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=375","title":{"rendered":"Our Christmas Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I\u2019m sitting in front of this contained and beautiful fireplace as I post this blog today. I was reading this scripture a couple of days ago: \u201cEven so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!\u201d (James 3:5) It refers to the damage that our tongues can cause \u2013 words that escape from our tongues that seem so incidental but can cause major damage if they\u2019re not kept in check. <\/p>\n

Reading that meaning caused me to remember \u201ca little fire that kindled\u201d in one of our Christmases long ago. We were new homeowners at last after paying a whopping $7,500 for our little fixer-upper home. that we turned into our \u201clove nest\u201d. Our children were ages three and one. My 22-year-old husband loved adding ambiance to the atmosphere with candlelight. This day, with the small, decorative kerosene lantern that he lit earlier, decided to light a nearby candle from the fire of the lantern, tipping it ever so slightly to light the candle. The candle was lit, but some of the kerosene poured out and a fire erupted. He dropped the lantern filled with kerosene and the fire blazed to our carpet. His quick thinking to stamp it out helped, but still, our carpet was scorched. Now we had to find carpet to match the huge spot that was burned to replace that scorched spot. <\/p>\n

You can imagine my husband\u2019s angst that he was so \u201cstupid and careless\u201d (his words, not mine). It was such a small lantern, but given the right set-of-circumstances, it sure produced big problems. As I type this, I couldn\u2019t help but think of the recent small campfire that became the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in California history.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s tempting to think about how we use our tongues is no big deal. Our words may not appear to do much damage, so we aren\u2019t more careful. We know that \u201cthe thief comes to steal, kill and destroy\u201d (John 10:10) so keeping guard of our words will certainly keep us from setting our words ablaze. <\/p>\n

I pay close attention to my vehicle\u2019s indicators to change the oil, put air in the tires, etc. Keeping an eye on the indicators that could set us up for a \u201cfire\u201d from our tongues is critically important in preventing a \u201cforest fire\u201d. Trust me. This is the voice (rather, tongue) of experience sharing this. Keeping a fire extinguisher on hand is a good idea, but never having to use it is even better. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded today that our words have power. The power to heal and the power to hurt. Words are no small thing. A Sunday School song we sang as kids was \u201cBe careful little mouth what you say!\u201d May we all be careful with our words — choosing blessing over cursing; helping over hurting; waiting rather than rushing the wrong words out into the world. <\/p>\n

At this beautiful time of the year, there may be situations that create opportunities to “let ‘er rip” and get careless with our words even in innocent conversations and situations. May our words bring \u201cJoy to the World\u201d as the light of Christ shines in AND out of us!<\/p>\n

Proverbs 18:21, \u201cDeath and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sitting in front of this contained and beautiful fireplace as I post this blog today. I was reading this scripture a couple of days ago: \u201cEven so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!\u201d (James 3:5) It refers to the damage that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[640,251,641,642,643,644,645,159,498,646,647,648,649],"class_list":["post-375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-be-care-little-mouth-what-you-say","tag-christmas","tag-fire","tag-fireplace","tag-forest","tag-heal-and-hurt","tag-james-35","tag-john-1010","tag-joy-to-the-world","tag-little-fire-kindles","tag-proverbs-1821","tag-tongue-is-a-little-member","tag-words-have-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8861,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375\/revisions\/8861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}