Blessings

Take this quiz:
1. Do you have Spirit power running your engines? yes or no
2. Do you speak curses? sometimes/never/always
3. What would your closest friends say is your plan for the future? blessing or disaster

It's time to make a plan. Our future is coming. We can plan for it or just react to it.
For about 10 years, I have been in the Lord's classroom (as my mom would say) in the area of my words. I have been praying for God's Words to speak over my family's future. My words get me into more trouble than anything else. Now the Holy Spirit, in love, reminds me when I am getting lazy or careless with my chatter. These verses provide some perspective.

"Our family will always struggle with this sin or that addiction."
"He is so rebellious."
"She is going to have such a hard life."
This should not be.

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?" James 3: 9-12

Deuteronomy 11:26: "I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse." Curses? Isn't that a bit dramatic? Well, like so many other spiritual concepts, we can have it one way or the other.

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. Who will proclaim it to us so we may obey it? I have set before you- life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life!" -Deuteronomy 30:11,19

Even after growing up in church, I did not understand until I was in my twenties that self control was a fruit of the Spirit. I believed that responding to the Spirit looked like an emotional reaction at best. Yes, I knew that God would not lead me to contradict His word, but I had a lot of gray area within that perimeter.

I almost dropped my Bible when I realized that Spirit fruit included self control. And that self control applied to my mouth. When I stopped a sin before it was in full bloom, I was a Spirit tree. Love and joy were great, but I often stopped at the beginning of that list in Galatians 5.

As my walk with the Lord became more of a daily relationship, rather than a weekly or monthly check in, I saw that He was rescuing me from hurts by preventing some unproductive conversations before they could start. He gave me a choice.

This is not too difficult! Choose life! Choose words that bless your future.