Can you control your temper?
David had been very angry at school. The class was picking a captain, and David just knew he would be picked - of course. He felt that it was obvious that he was the one who everyone listened to. He was the one who answered the most questions from the teacher He was the one who always had ideas when the others were stumped about something. Yes, he was sure he would be captain.

When David got to school on the day the captain was to be chosen, he was so confident and excited. His friends told him that it was a certainty, “who else would they pick!” Then the votes were taken just before lunch - and that bossy GIRL, Kay,
was picked to be captain! David was red with fury as they left the class room. He laughed loudly and rudely at Kay and said, “I didn’t want to be captain, anyway. Only idiots what to do that, teacher’s pets and dumb kids like that!” He went out of his way to bump her and ridicule her in the tuck shop.

When he went home, David told his Dad all about it. “Kay got to be captain because she is a girl, Dad! She was chosen because the teacher can’t stand boys. Kay butters up to all the teachers, I’ve seen her!” His father looked down at his shoes, and then he said, “I don’t really think that was the reason she was chosen, David, do you?” David got awfully angry again, and bashed the door shut as he went outside.

That night at dinner Dad read from the Word of God before he said grace:
“ And the LORD, he [it is] that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8).
David heard only the words “he will be with thee” and “neither forsake thee.”
That meant that the Lord had heard all the nasty things he had said to Kay. God had seen him in that temper over losing the class votes. God had seen the whole mess!
It was as though a knife had gone into David’s heart.

When he got in bed, he asked the Lord Jesus to forgive him for his jealousy and temper. David felt a lot better after that. Next day he went up to Kay and told her he was glad she had won, because she was more grown up than he was. “I’m a Christian, yesterday I was out of line, that was no way for a Christian to act, sorry!”

Only God can help us keep our tongues from spitting out nasty words. The tongue is only little, but it sure is a wild thing! Before you know it sometimes you can say words you regret later on. Ask God to control your tongue, and your temper too.

The book of James tells us a lot about the tongue. It says this: