I got really irritated with my credit union. They started to nickel and dime me. I have been with them for over twenty years and have never had an overdraft. I didn’t this time. It was just some silly fee they charged me. It was nothing much but it was the idea of the thing. So I went all ready to vent. However, when I arrived there were a couple of what looked like teenagers as tellers and someone behind a desk who looked fairly unimportant from the way he was dressed. I realized venting to any of these people would have been quite useless. They didn’t do the crime and they had no authority. So I held my tongue and very nicely and politely closed the account. As I left I wondered how often we say things to make ourselves feel better and then regret the nastiness after we leave. So I left not feeling bad. I never said anything nasty.
James, Jesus’ brother, wrote in chapter 3 of his small epistle, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” It is such good counsel. I will sleep well tonight with no regrets. Truthfully I have never been let down if I follow God’s counsel. The only times life gets confused is when I forget to do or say what I know is God’s will.
So here comes the moral of the story, which you are bright enough to have already figured out; so I will not insult you by now detailing it.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 18, 2013
PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org