Would you kiss the gum pole? My kids have all gone to high school in North Kansas City. There is a tradition there – it’s the gum pole. Every day on the way to and from class, students chew gum and when they pass this one special light pole they take the gum they’ve been chewing out of their mouths and stick it to the gum pole. As a result, after days and days of class, the pole is covered with chewing gum from the base to about 12 feet up the pole. (I don’t want to know how it get’s so far up the pole. When the city feels that the pole is in need of a good cleaning, they scape it down and soon afterwards, the cycle begins all over again.

No one would ever dream of pulling gum off the pole and rechewing it. That, would be disgusting and way to unsanitary for most people. But if you think about what we listen to and the things we say on a regular basis, we allow far worst stuff than ABC gum to touch our lips.

In the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, Paul writes this:

5

1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

What if we made it a point to keep obscenity, foolish talk and course joking from entering our ears and then exiting our mouths? How much would that change our daily routine? Would our friends think something was wrong with us?

What do you say we scrape the ole’ gum pole and start fresh? Then we can focus on laying down a whole new set of lingo, instead of those nasty little tidbits we’ve been letting fly

Eph. 4:29 – Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.