Gossip…it seems like I will never overcome it.  I try so hard to take it out of my life but somehow it creeps back in.  Either by listening to it or by speaking it.  And for some reason I find it the hardest around my CHRISTIAN friends.

Doesn’t that seem a little odd? Your Christian friends are suppose to help you not sin, and call you out on it when you do, so why does it seem like I gossip the most around Christians?  As I thought about this concept I tried to break it down, when did it seem like I fell into temptation and gossiped?  In a bible study.  Asking for prayer from others.  Reuniting with friends that I haven’t seen in a long time and recapping them on my life.

That’s it!  It’s when I don’t mean it to be gossip but it is.  When asking for prayer about a situation it usually starts out innocent but then either I offer too much information or the person asks for more details, which I should not share, yet with enough persuasion I do.  Then in my head I justify it by telling myself “they need to know more of the situation so that they can pray for me better”.   Or “she is just being a good friend and is wanting to know what is going on in my life.  In prayer God knows what you are talking about so people do not need to offer up all the information.  For some reason when people ask us how we are and how life has been we go into other people’s lives.  Saying phrases like “Did you hear….” “Guess what happened the other day….”  If someone asks you what has been new in your life, you should only talk about YOUR life.

As girls trying to live the life that God has called us we must help our fellow sisters in Christ stop gossiping.  Don’t ask for more details about a situation, say “I don’t need to know this”, yes it is hard, trust me its hard.  But we have to do it.  Or else sooner or later we will have dug ourselves a big hole with no friends (since no one will trust us). Proverbs 20:19 - A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.

James 3 gives us a challenge…
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.  All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt[a] water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.  James 3: 3-12

Which will you choose to do with your tongue: praise your creator or gossip…you can’t do both.

Rebekah