Foot-in-Mouth Disease

Ps. 141: 3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips

Some of you might know that the party song for the Jamaica Labour Party is “Stand up Jamaica, When you Hear the Bell”. The party song for the People’s National Party is “The Trumpet has Sounded”. I was conducting the funeral of a well-known JLP supporter – let’s call him Peter. As we were about to leave the graveside, the JLP party supporters, according to their tradition, began to sing, “Stand up Peter, when you hear the bell”. I immediately announced loudly, “Peter will not stand up again until the trumpet sounds”. There was silence for a moment before I realized what I had said and hastily tried to correct things: ‘I mean Gabriel’s trumpet, the trumpet of the Lord…” Fortunately, the folks knew me well enough to know it was a genuine mistake and everybody had a good laugh.

We all make such mistakes sometimes – as we like to say, “I put my foot in my mouth”. At friendly gatherings we often laugh over the verbal slips made by ourselves, our friends, our pastors, or our politicians. But verbal slips are not always amusing. Sometimes saying the wrong thing causes serious trouble. We sometimes talk matters that should have remained confidential, express thoughts that are biased and prejudicial, criticize too harshly or express opinions before we think something through. Our emotions also sometimes cause us to put “foot in mouth”. People who are very angry, excited, or maybe carried away with romantic “fever” sometimes say things they later regret and wish they could take back.

As a child with a bad case of “foot in mouth” disease, I was blessed to have a good mother who gave me a dose of medicine every morning until the complaint was cured. Each morning before I left for school she would have us (my cousin and me) repeat the words of today’s text: “Set a watch O Lord before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (KJV). The sin of speaking the wrong thing, or at the wrong time or in the wrong way is difficult to deal with. The Bible tells us how hard it is to handle; but thank God, He can give us the strength to overcome this weakness and heal us of that destructive “foot in mouth disease”.

Lord, help me today and each day to speak wisely, honestly and constructively, in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.