Tommy Mann

Have you ever thought about the words you speak being food? That might not be the first mental image you get when you think about your words, but the book of Proverbs makes that comparison.  First, Solomon makes the analogy in a negative way, writing in 26:22, "The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body." A whisperer is a gossip, someone who has to look over his shoulder before he lowers his voice and passes on what he is about to say. Many people have a craving for gossip that can never be satisfied. And the whispered words taste so good going down--they are truly delicious morsels. The Hebrews phrase literally reads "things greedily devoured;" the gossip is a glutton, feasting on words when he should be pushing away from the table.  I might greedily devour an entire cheesecake, and enjoy each bite in that moment. But after the fact my blood sugar spikes and I can't button my pants. In a similar way, the w...

Did you know that your words smell? And no, I’m not talking about your breath.    The words we choose to speak have a distinct smell; some words smell good, and some smell bad. Paul referenced the smell of our words in Ephesians 4:29 when he wrote, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”    The Greek word translated as corrupted means rotten. I’m sure you have smelled something rotten before. You walk into the kitchen and the scent slaps you right in the face. You try to hunt the source of the stench, and after several minutes you see the bag of potatoes in the corner. You hold your breath and reach for the bag; once you pick it up you see that it is dripping. You now work to get the rotten vegetables out of your house as soon as possible, and remove any trace of their remnants.    Rotten food stinks. So do some of our words. Making fun of peo...