Loose lips

I love popping in on Facebook every morning to wish those with birthdays a happy one. While I’m here, I scroll for a while trying to catch up on what some of you are doing. I do love those glimpses into your lives.

Of course, this is also a place where everyone has opinions, views, beliefs, likes, and dislikes—freely shared. Maybe too freely. It seems to me there is a lot of shaming going on. You know, you share your opinion or beliefs, and those who don’t agree start bashing, shaming, and labeling.

My friends, this behavior is shameful. It makes me so sad. The slandering, the level of disrespect—the hatefulness. We don’t agree with each other, so we write each other off? We automatically put a negative label on each other? We publicly shame each other?

We can’t love our neighbor and hate them at the same time. Seriously!

Disagreeing with each other’s politics, lifestyles, beliefs—or whatever—doesn’t give us license to hate on each other. Isn’t this the land of the free? Free to be different while living in harmony with those who are different?

I’m not going to berate and belittle you because your lifestyle, beliefs, or politics are different from mine. No, I CHOOSE to love you by respecting that you have choices. I don’t have to agree. I don’t even have to like those choices. We may never run in the same circles. But if I know you, then I know God has brought you into my life and that you have value and worth. Therefore, I will not disrespect or dishonor you with my words or thoughts. I’ll look for the best in you because I CHOOSE to love you.

You see, love is not an emotion but an action.

Sure, there is such a thing as tough love. By that, I mean speaking the truth in love. And by truth, I mean speaking God’s Word to others in love—not shaming them with it. It means knowing when it’s appropriate to speak and when it’s likely to fall on ears that do not want or are not open to hearing.

Sometimes we do need to draw a line in the sand or speak up against evil and wrongdoing. But are we doing it in a way that is kind and honoring, or unkind and dishonoring?

Sure, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Everyone is doing it. It’s the norm. That’s the problem.

The tongue is like a ship’s rudder—steering the course. In 2026, free speech is steering us. It’s up to us to decide which direction we want to go.

James 3:4-6, 9-10

“Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”