Think a Minute:
It goes without saying that we all need help at times managing the words we say to others or about others. Today, I wish to address the subject of gossip. Talking behind someone’s back is something we are all guilty of. How soon we forget that we can never retrieve careless words. We must realize that gossip cuts to the core and is in fact a low blow to someone else. I once heard someone say, “The quickest way to cut your own throat is to speak meanly of someone else to another person.” How true this is. In Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, the first chapter we read a good description of someone who gossips: “Moreover, as they go about from house to house, they learn to be idlers, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say and talking of things they should not mention.”
We must remember that words are powerful. They can edify and bless or they can hurt and tear down. Here is a prayer for us today:
“Dear Lord, I opened my mouth before I thought. Forgive me. How could I have talked so behind someone’s back? I can never retrieve careless words. Give me strength to ask for forgiveness, to try to make things right. Go before me, dear Lord, and help me make amends. I am beginning to realize how much gossip hurts others. Wise words soothe and heal. Teach me, Lord, to use words of wisdom, and in the future let me remember the hard lesson from this experience. Guard my tongue and seal my lips. The Bible shows me that careless words can break bones. May I not get caught in the snares of others who are gossping. Help me to build up life’s cornerstones in people, rather that chiseling and breaking them down. Fill my thoughts with things that are good and right. Let everything I do and say be pleasing to You. Now, I focus my eyes on You, dear Lord. I take refuge in Your strength and comfort in Your wisdom.”
Amen and Amen!
Pastor Rob Pesola