Guard Duty

Proverbs 21
23 He who guards his mouth and his tongue,
Guards his soul from troubles.

Guard duty. Most folks outside the Military probably don’t know that there’s at least 237 different kinds of guard duty. Ok, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not a big exaggeration. When I went through Army Basic Training, we had Fire Guard- someone is always on guard in the barracks, Roaming Guard- someone was always patrolling the exterior of the barracks, and while on field exercises, you were pretty much expected to always be guarding something- your vehicle, your weapon, your buddy, the tree next to the guy your buddy is talking to. The military is big on guarding.

Why should we as Christians guard our words? To be on guard is to be watchful for threat or danger. To be a guard is to be a protector, a watchman, a first line of defense. We need to be on guard because we have an enemy. Our enemy would love for us to shoot of at the mouth and wreck our testimony, or our relationships. We need to be on guard because there is danger in our words; there is power. We need to be on guard because we can keep our soul from trouble. I don’t need any more trouble, and I’m sure you don’t either. Let’s be vigilant in guarding our words, and bringing peace to our souls.