Watch that mouth!

I've got a big mouth. Less in the physiological sense, and more in the "not afraid to say anything" sense. Often, this trait serves me well. Often it doesn't.

One of my favorite things about scripture is how God takes our weaknesses and makes them strengths. Take Peter, for example. Character trait: Passion and loyalty. Good side: "You are the Christ, the son of the living God!" Bad side: cutting off the soldiers ear. How true it is that our strength taken too far is often our weakness.

So, I got caught saying something about an external appearance issue that was unflattering, though not necessarily untrue. Definitely unkind. Even I was embarrassed. The question now is: what do I do about it?

No amount of groveling or apology will erase the memory of my remark. But I can change how I choose to act in the future. In Sunday's sermon, Francis preached of Jesus' lack of condemnation for the adulterous woman when he told her to "Go and sin no more." So that's what I must do-- change my future in response to my past.

I can't change my personality, nor do I really care to. But I can choose to speak kindly and appropriately to others, treating them as I would want to be treated, no better than I want to be treated. Not everyone has my thick skin, and I need to remember that we are called to be kind for a reason. When I am critical of someone else, I'm judging them, not loving them as we are called to do.

So the next time I come up with that clever description of someone's new do, or new shirt, or old shirt, if I'm not prepared to tell it to the wearer, I think I'll keep it to myself.