Some weeds that need rooting out of our heart and conversations as we journey toward a tamer tongue:
Leviticus 19:17 & 18 – “Do not hate your brother in your heart … Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”
Proverbs 4:24 – “Put away perversity from your mouth (a deliberate desire to behave in an unreasonable or unacceptable way; contrariness); keep corrupt talk far from your lips (having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain)
Ephesians 4:31 – “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
Ephesians 5:4 – “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.”
Proverbs 18:8 (and repeated in Proverbs 26:22) – “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”
Proverbs 10:19 – “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”
Philippians 2:14-16a – “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.”