The Untameable Tongue

’Tis amazing indeed
what people can do!
The architects, financiers
and contractors too.
They level the mountains,
form lakes on our streams;
there’s hardly a thing
they won’t try, so it seems.

Skilled are musicians
who warble and croon;
and men with their genius
take trips to the moon.
While masses are swayed 
by the orator’s tongue,
and Hollywood captures 
the old and the young!

Yes, back at the outset,
the Lord had a plan
for the world He created
submitting to man;
and all of God’s creatures
on land, sea, and air,
were destined to know
man’s dominion and care.

So man tames the lion
from deep in the wild,
and makes even the monkey
behave like a child.
He’s able to conquer 
all powers yet named;
only one he can’t master –
his tongue can’t be tamed.

The tongue is a spring
which no mortal can seal;
what the heart has conceived,
the tongue must reveal.
Though noble the purpose,
vile words to restrain,
when the heart gives its orders,
the tongue can’t refrain.

The tongue—a small part 
of this body we own,
for good or for evil—
potential unknown.
And age makes no difference
for better or worse,
one moment it blesses,
the next it may curse.

The tongue is a window 
that lets others see
far past any front
of pretending to be.
It is merely the tool,
the channel, the voice,
conveying commands 
of an innermost choice.

The heart must be changed
from evil to good
if the tongue is to speak
and reveal what it should.
Only God has that power,
His Spirit must move,
by filling our hearts 
with His grace and His love.

fpn/undated



Published as poem #38 in Contemporary Psalms
Picture: depositphotos.com #66896753, standard license