Are You A Gossip? Mend Your Ways!

A word out of your mouth... can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it.
James 3:5


There's a saying that goes, "The deepest wounds in life come not from swords but words." If you don't believe it look at the walking wounded; they're all around you! Are you yourself still struggling with the hurtful words of an insensitive parent, a school teacher, a marriage partner, or a boss? Or worse, a Christian who thinks God's Word on the subject of gossip doesn't apply to them?
God takes the sin (yes, it's a sin!) of gossip so seriously that He devotes an entire chapter of the Bible to it. If we were to read James, chapter three, regularly we might show more consideration before opening our mouths. The Bible says: "A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire!" (James 3:5).

One day a woman came to her pastor with a troubled conscience. She had "sliced and diced" just about everybody in church. "How can I make things right?" she asked.
He said, "Take a box of feathers and drop one on the doorstep of each person you've criticised." After doing so she came back and said, "Is that all?" "No," he said. "Now go, pick them all up and bring them back to me." A week or so later, the woman returned without a single one. "The wind blew them all away," she said. After a long silence the pastor said, "That's how it is with words; they're easily spoken, but you can never take them back again."

Are you a gossip? Mend your ways!

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