Spent some time this morning listening to a podcast, “Shut Up!”
Now that’s not a nice way to start a day, but quite often that’s what we need to do, to have a successful day and lead a good life, simply, “Shut Up!”
Do you know you've got a mouse in your house? A little fellow who could cause destruction, devastation and wreak havoc in your life? A mouse which wriggles this way and that and if not kept under control is sure to bring you and your house down sooner or later?
I must tell you about the "Mouse Fire" that took place some time ago in New Mexico where a man claimed he was ridding his house of mice that had become very bothersome:
In the interview, the man, Mares recounted three times the series of events of that Saturday: A little mouse got caught in one of the glue traps he'd set in and around his home. He was pleased -- mice were a nuisance, they'd been bothering him for some time, leaving droppings everywhere. And they were hard to get rid of. This mouse, too, was resilient -- trapped but still moving. The glue was sticky; he couldn't pull the mouse off.
So, according to Mares, he went outside and threw the whole deal -- mouse and trap -- onto leaves he was burning outside. The mouse, now ablaze, scrambled to safety, then headed back for the house and disappeared inside a window.
About 90 seconds later, the house was on fire!
How did the mouse run away, still trapped in the glue?
"The fire melted the glue and he got away," Mares said.
Is that plausible?
Fort Sumner Fire Chief Juan Chavez said that he thinks so.
"There's no reason for him to lie about what he told us," Chaves said. "I don't doubt it at all."
Fire crews arrived within minutes of the blaze and questioned Mares.
"He said the mouse wasn't dead and it took off, they're really devastated. They lost all photos of our family, all his papers. He's a veteran of World War II. He's been through a lot."
Well, "if" this story is true, and it seems that it is, it sure does illustrate the fact that if a mouse can bring down a house, then an out of control tongue can bring down a person!
Your tongue is the mouse in your house!
The scriptures say that "The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person and sets the whole course of his life on fire"
So keep guard; don't ever let your tongue be the mouse in your house...!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
