In one week we leave for Guatemala. We are moving there as a family to work with Servants 4 Him. Now I have a certain image of what a missionary family should look like and act like and we don’t fit the mold. In some ways that is good, in other ways, lets just say He’s still working on us.

Sunday our campus pastor spoke on the tongue. He is a Godly man who has the gift of encouragement. He said how he could not even bring himself to say the word…c.r.a.p. and even then, he spelled it.

After church, Clay jumps in the car and says, “O crap”.

I started in on him. “Were you in the service today? Did you hear the message on the tongue? Did you hear Pastor Rob say he couldn’t even say the word crap? And you jump in the car and the first word out of your mouth is crap! DO NOT SAY CRAP!”

“Gosh mom, I just said it once, you just said it three times in like 30 seconds.”
At this point I am thinking about hurting him and if they arrest me I’ll just start a prison ministry.

I am positive that most families got in their car and NO ONE said the word crap after the sermon on the tongue. I am also sure that they would all be more qualified to be missionaries in Guatemala. However, we are the ones that are willing to go, so God is going have to continue to mold us.

As I spend time in God’s word and I looked at Isaiah, where he says, “Here I am Lord send me,” it amazes me that in the verses before hand he confesses his unclean lips.

Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah’s Commission
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Even the book of James ties the tongue and serving together;

James 1: 26-27
If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

So, all I can say is, we may be willing but, Oh Cr… er… SNAP, we have our work cut out for us!!

(Mo)