There’s a story about a talking Parrot that had a foul mouth.  In fact, it cursed like a sailor!  One day, a lady went into the pet store and fell in love with the parrot. She felt that even though it had a terrible mouth, it was too cute not to take home with her. The lady figured that she would buy it and teach it to talk differently, and then everything would be alright. So she bought the parrot, took it home and worked with it. She successfully taught the Parrot to stop using foul language and to start talking like a Christian. She trained it to say phrases like, “Praise the Lord!” and “Hallelujah!”

            One day she forgot to feed the parrot. The parrot became very angry and went back to his old ways. Once again, it was cussing like a sailor! The lady figured that she had to teach the parrot a lesson, so the put it in the freezer. After about five or ten minutes, she took the parrot out and asked it, “Have you learned your lesson?” The parrot replied, “Yesssss, ma’am.” Everything went alright for awhile; he went back to using wholesome talk and saying Christian things.

            About four or five months later, the lady forgot to feed the parrot again. He went back to his old ways. The lady carried him out of the cage and back to the freezer, saying, “I told you, we’re not going to have this kind of language in my house!” She put the parrot back in the freezer, but this time she forgot about it. It dawned on her hours later that she had left her parrot in the freezer. She ran into the kitchen and got the parrot out. When it finally thawed out, the lady asked, “Have you learned your lesson now?” “Ooooooohhhh, yyyyeeeeeeeesssss maaaaa’aam! But can I ask you a question?” the parrot chattered. “Sure.” she replied. “I thought I knew every curse word there was, but I guess that I don’t. What words exactly did the turkey say?”

            That silly story illustrates a crucial Biblical truth. As disciples of Jesus, we should be very careful to “Let no corrupting talk come out of [our] mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29 ESV) After all, in the words of James: “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.” (James 1:26 NLT) Let’s be careful to use wholesome words.

In Christ,
Jonathan Anderson