Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” It’s interesting to me how much power the tongue has. We must understand the power that we leverage everyday whether it’s for good or for evil. If this is your first time on this blog, I’m doing a series on the 70 resolutions of Jonathan Edwards. I’m taking 1 resolution per day and reflecting on it. Edwards’ 16th resolution was…

Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one, so that it shall tend to his dishonour, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.

Talking about other people behind their back can be fun. It diverts the attention away from our own issues and onto another persons’. What also tends to happen is that we get annoyed by people who struggle with the same issues that we struggle with so they end up being the people we talk about the most.

Edwards is saying here that he made a decision to be a force for good. All you have to do is read the newspaper to understand that we live in a very negative society. I think that if we followed Edwards’ lead on this we could really make a massive impact on the people around us.

Edwards did say that he would speak evil but only if it would accomplish some real good. Part of being a force for good is deciding to deal with the darkness around us. In some cases dealing with the darkness is refusing to talk about it but if you go too far in that direction, you can help to perpetuate it. The common denominator is deciding that your mission is to increase light and decrease darkness. If you really stick to your guns on that, it can operate as a true north in every situation.