Recently 31 year-old Chayne Hultgren of Australia achieved a personal best. He managed to swallow 18 swords, each nearly 30 inches long. “Its amazing” he said, “I’ve been preparing for this since I was 16.”

Really? Where does this stuff come from? How does a person one day decide, “I’m gonna start practicing my sword swallowing.” Did his parents say, “hey son, if I told you once, I’ve told you a hundred timed, take this sword and practice swallowing it for a while and maybe one day you’ll set a record and make the family proud.” Not likely! But however it happens, it seems painful and hard to imagine that it’s not doing irreparable damage to the esophagus, throat and stomach.

Thinking about what goes into our mouths, Jesus made an intriguing statement in Matthew 15:11, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” In other words, it’s not “swords” going in but “swords” coming out that do the damage. Obviously Jesus was talking about the things we say, harsh words, lies, criticisms, filthy language, and destructive comments. Our mouths reveal what’s really going on in our hearts. So what do your words reveal about the real you?

What Do You Think?