We speak words of praise to God, and with the same tongue we curse our fellow man. This ought not to be part of our lives (James 3:9-10). Usually we speak to others. Some people do tend to talk to themselves, but we think them a little odd. However, it is the others we need to be concerned about. The words we say often find themselves passed on to other ears. We call that gossip.

Good advice is to control our tongues by controlling our thoughts. Our words tend to reflect what is in our heart (Matthew 12:34). “Think before you speak,” we sometimes say. It is good to control our thoughts because they are the source of our words. Somehow we will express what we are thinking—maybe in confidence, but words fly quickly. When we examine the way we think and how we control that, we will never have to worry about a strange “bird” carrying our thoughts where we would not want them to go (Ecclesiastes 10:20).