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Along Life’s Way
Speaking in “Tongues”
By Lois E. Wilson
There are many uses of the words “tongue” and “tongues” in the Bible.
They represent three different forms: the organ tongue, language(s),
and for good or bad discourse.
It is interesting the way certain words and their idioms invade our
language. The phrase “speaking in tongues” is one of the spiritual
gifts described in 1 Corinthians 12 7-11, 28 (NIV). Paul explains that
God chose some people for leadership and they were given the ability to
speak and interpret different tongues.
In addition to the above, dictionaries give several meanings for
“tongue.” It can be the sound of the hound as it chases the fox, a
flame of fire, a long strip of land, and a bell’s clapper to name a few.
The tongue of a shoe protects the foot from the pressure of tied laces.
The handle that projects from a wagon and the moveable pin in a buckle
are also tongues. There is the tongue-and-groove joint in carpentry.
The words appear in many descriptive phrases. You can be reticent to
speak and be accused of being tongue-tied or asked, “Has the cat got
your tongue?” Have you tried to master a tongue twister sentence in
which the consonant sounds are so similar they are hard to quickly
articulate?
If you speak tongue-in-cheek, you may be ironic, flippant, or
insincere. You definitely do not want to talk with a forked tongue,
which indicates you are being deceitful or lying. Children stick out
their tongues at things they don’t like. Or they may receive a tongue
lashing if they have been bad.
A wealth of “tongue” quotes exists: Benjamin Franklin observed, “A slip
of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may
never get over.”
“A knife wound heals, but a tongue wound festers.” Ella Leya
“I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.” Marcus Tullius Cicero
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, it might have been.” Whittier
Davy Crockett said: ”My tongue speaks what my heart thinks.”
In day-to-day interactions we can always hope that the participants are
speaking with good hearts and intentions. If we believe our spoken
feelings could be hurtful to others and if we are wise, we can choose
to invoke the old idiom and “hold our tongues.”
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