How is your tongue temperature?

As I continue to journey deeper with God, He is gently placing His finger on areas of my life that hmmm, let's say, need attention. One of these areas is my mouth. Now this is not the first time I have talked about this, nor will it be the last. I sometimes talk a lot and it is not all necessary. God is showing me how wretched I am without Him.
It frightens me how quickly careless things come out of my mouth. There are times when I engage my tongue much quicker than my brain. It takes a lot of discipline to be able to think before I speak. I know I cannot overcome these temptations without God's help.
Although I know I am not where I used to be, I have a long way to go. It was just last week at work when a woman accused me of blaming her for something that sarcasm quickly came across my lips, but 5 or 6 words into it, I had a Holy Spirit prompting to zip my lip and love her instead. Thankfully because of that, she left grateful instead of discouraged or bitter.
Amy Carmichael says the best way to check our tongue temperature is to ask yourself 3 questions before you speak.
1. Is it kind?
2. Is it true?
3. Is it necessary?
I realized when I read this that usually the things I say are kind and true but man do I fall short on the is it necessary!
I heard another teaching on the weekend that wasn't necessarily just talking about our mouths but it involves using it for life and not death. Humility was the subject. In order to keep this posture in our relationships, we needed to value the relationship more than being right.
To me this means to not necessarily say the things that are in us. I pray that God will redeem the many, many times I have not held my words in check and caused fractures in my relationships.
I have prayed much lately Psalm 141:3 'Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.'
As I have become more aware of this battle to use my tongue for good, God reminded me of a little book I have called "30 Days to Taming Your Tongue" by Deborah Smith Pegues.
So I have set my mind to read this for the next 30 days and to blog each day about how it is speaking to me. Will you come along with me on this challenge? I know there are probably not too many of you who may read this that have trouble with their tongues?! Oops, I think sarcasm may be somewhere in this book, well I will know better for next time.
Please also pray for me as I will for you because I know daily there are opportunities to fall into these temptations or choose the high road. I will let God's word have the final say as I leave you with Paul's words from Ephesians 4:29,30
'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. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption'