At the beginning of the movie, Blindside, the narrator explains the role of the offensive line and one position in particular, the left guard. Her explanation goes something like this: “When a woman is paying the household bills, the first check she writes is to pay the mortgage, the second check is to pay the insurance.” The meaning: you want to ensure you have your greatest financial asset, your house so you pay the mortgage, and you want to make sure that your asset is protected, so you make sure your insurance premium is up to date. That all makes logical sense. As it is applied to football, you first make sure that you have a great quarterback to run the offense, and second, you want to make sure that your quarterback is well-protected, so you invest in a very good left guard to watch and guard the quarterback’s blindside.

Solomon, of course, knows nothing of football. In his world, as king of Israel most of the work that he accomplishes is with his mouth. When he as King utters a decree, it becomes law. As King, his words matter. The King’s words have the power of life and death. In some ways, the King’s authority is exercised by his words, they are powerful and effective. In some ways, they are very similar to God’s Word, which the Bible also says is powerful and effective. In Genesis 1 God speaks His word and the heavens and earth are formed.

So Solomon understands the power of our words. In Proverbs, he emphasizes the importance of protecting the source of our words, our tongue. “Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” (Proverbs 21:23). If your tongue is the quarterback, you need to invest in good protection, a good guard. That is putting knowledge into practice, that is wisdom.

Practically speaking, think of all the ways that an unguarded tongue can get a person into trouble: lying, gossip, slander, and cursing are just a few examples of trouble that comes courtesy of an unwisely guarded tongue. Lying can get you in trouble with your parents, with your husband or wife if married, with your boss, with your friends and with God. That’s a lot of trouble. People usually tell lies to try to keep out of trouble, but often it backfires and they get into more trouble. Lie to a police officer and you won’t only get into trouble for whatever you did, but then you’ll have extra trouble for lying about it. There’s a reason that when arrested they say “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say will be used against you.” What that means is, you’re better off just keeping your mouth shut then to tell a lie to try to cover up. Even if you are innocent of the charge, you can still get yourself into trouble by what you say. Please not, I’m not advocating for you to commit crimes and tell you how to avoid jail, but simply showing the wisdom of guarding your tongue. Think before you speak.

In this age of social media, guarding your tongue takes on greater meaning. With social media, our words can go farther faster and last longer. I have heard of incidents of people not being hired for a job they were otherwise qualified for because the prospective employer looked at their social media feed and saw objectionable content from years earlier. I’ve heard of people losing jobs because of their words. Unguarded words can be very costly. They can cost not only jobs; they can cost relationships.

Solomon wisely counsels that in many situations it is far wiser to say nothing at all. Proverbs 17:28 says: “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” An old adage attributed to Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln (but probably someone different) says “It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Words have heavy spiritual consequences as well. Ecclesiastes 5:2 says: “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” Think about the promises that you make to other people, and think harder about the promises you make to God. For instance, when you are baptized, you promise to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior be faithful to him and follow him. That’s a very strong promise. A disturbingly large number of people who used to go to church faithfully are dropping out of the church, and many no longer identify as Christian, they are joining the swelling ranks of so-called “nones” or people with no religious affiliation. That’s a lot of people who made promises to God who are no longer keeping those promises. But good news: God is very forgiving and welcoming to those who repent, turn back to Him. Still, think about any promises you make with your mouth before God. Whether it’s to faithfully follow Jesus Christ, be faithful to a wife or husband, commit to serve in a ministry, don’t be quick to make a promise that you don’t really intend to keep.

In short, your words really do matter, so a spiritually wise person needs to “think before you speak.” So be sure to guard your tongue the way a left guard protects his quarterback. That’s a key to spiritual victory in life, that is a way towards true flourishing.