When I was a young mother, I knew a person who was gentle and kind. She did not speak evil of anyone. She made each person feel as though he or she was important. You had the sense that she paid attention to every word you spoke.
I asked her once how she learned to control her anger. She said one morning as she was yelling at her children, the thought came to her, yelling does not accomplish anything. She decided on that day never to yell at her children again. Though she disciplined them, her words were firm yet loving.
The mother's tongue can destroy a child's conception of God's love so that the child struggles with it the rest of his or her life. Our tongues can not only harm ourselves, they can harm those we love (James 3:2).
