I haven't posted in a while because this past week I was practicing the discipline of taming my tongue. I am in a spiritual growth group and once a week we choose an activity to practice a disclipline. This week I chose to "only speak when necessary". It has been extremely difficult for me. I felt like that included email, blogging, snail mail, and speech. So I have tried to only respond to inquiries that required a response. Here is what I learned:

• I like to talk, NEED to talk, more than I realized.
• I was more aware of what I was saying when I was talking.
• Failure is a learning process. At the beginning of the week I would say something and think how I had failed, because what I said was not necessary. But as the week went by I was able to hold my tongue more.
• Talking wastes a lot of time.

One funny thought...I was working in the garden on Saturday and wishing my youger son would come out and talk to me so I could talk as well. The funny thing is, I often wish he wouldn't talk so much!