28-Day
“Tame the Tongue” Challenge
By Elin Henderson
“Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles.”
I
am an avid Prevention magazine reader
and seriously addicted to any 21-day, 28-day, and/or 30-day challenges that
they offer. I find them helpful in not only breaking bad habits, but also in
creating healthier habits that guide my thinking and living. Of course, you
would think that after 10 years of taking challenge after challenge, I wouldn’t
need to keep on with them. But I realize that I easily fall off the wagon of
healthy living; it doesn’t take long to fall back into bad habits and unhealthy
choices.
As
much as my physical health needs these 28-day challenges to help me stay on
track, my spirit needs them even more. I can think of no area more in need of a
serious lifestyle change than my tongue. James 3:1-12 tells us that our tongue
is the biggest culprit for leading us astray more times than not. He calls it
“untamable…a defiling
force within us…an unruly evil…full of deadly poison.” Powerful and frightening
words, and I know that for me, they are all too often the bottom line truth.
So
I decided that I would start up the “28-Day Tame the Tongue Challenge” for
myself. Just as other challenges make us
more aware of the wrong choices we are making and remind us to make right
choices, my goal with this 28-day challenge is to ask the Lord to do a work of
change in my life. Asking Him to help keep these verses in James, and others
like them, in the forefront of my mind. So I can begin breaking my bad habits,
as well as creating new and healthier pathways.
If
you’d like, you can join with me in this “28-Day Tame the Tongue
Challenge.” Together, we will ask our
personal trainer (aka the Holy Spirit) to take His guidebook (aka the
Scriptures) and do a work of renewal and change within us! He alone can get us
on track and keep us there for 28 days and BEYOND!
GOING DEEPER:
1.What are some practical ways to
keep this challenge before us? (Printing
out spiritual reminders and/or Scriptures and placing them in strategic places
around the house, a habit tracker, reminders on our phone…)
2. Do you have anyone that you can
partner with? These challenges are always more fun and more effective when
there is accountability.
FURTHER READING:
Oakwood’s missionaries Elin Henderson (a
registered nurse) and her husband Phil serve as church planters with New Tribes
in Mozambique, Africa. Elin is mother to
seventeen-year-old Callie and fourteen-year-old Elias.
