I know a mother who seeks to have a brief season of prayer and a text of Scripture just before going to dinner to prepare her heart to guide the conversation along spiritual highways.
Are you careful and have you victory in this matter, my comrade? If not, seek it just now in simple, trustful prayer, and the Lord who loves you will surely answer, and will be your helper from this time forth. He surely will. Believe just now, and henceforth “let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ.”
“I ask Thee, ever blessed Lord,
That I may never speak a word,
Of envy born, or passion stirred.
“First, true to Thee in heart and mind,
Then always to my neighbour kind,
By Thy good hand to good inclined.
“Oh, save from words that bear a sting,
That pain to any brother bring:
Inbreathe Thy calm in everything.
“Let love within my heart prevail,
To rule my words when thoughts assail,
That, hid in Thee, I may not fail.
“I know, my Lord, Thy power within
Can save from all the power of sin;
In Thee let every word begin.
“Should I be silent? Keep me still,
Glad waiting on my Master’s will:
Thy message through my lips fulfil.
“Give me Thy words when I should speak,
For words of Thine are never weak,
But break the proud, but raise the meek.
“Into Thy lips all grace is poured,
Speak Thou through me, Eternal Word,
Of thought, of heart, of lips the Lord.”