Kind words, encouragement should be what comes out of your mouth

Gossip grabs our attention. We as humanity, have a powerful drive to know about other people’s personal lives. The celebrity gossip industry is filled with magazines, television programs and social media that adds up to more than a $3 billion industry. We are curious to know what people are up to.

I believe for many of us as Christians, we tolerate gossip because we’ve all been guilty of it. It’s not so easy to face up to sin which you

have done and have encouraged others to do by listening to their gossip. So we tend to shrug it off. Or we spiritualize it by saying something like this to others, “I felt God was telling me to share this personal, confidential information with you about ‘Pastor so and so’s’ marriage because God really wants us to pray for them.”

We try to share confidential, possibly damaging information by sounding religious, but really we are being hypocritical.

We need to own up to gossip as a serious sin that can destroy people and hurt relationships. If we want healthy relationships, and gossip I’m telling you is not healthy… we need to admit the trap it is and try to eradicate it from our behaviours.

We gossip for many reasons including; fear, the need to be included and belong, insecurities and just plain old meanness.

I believe we could avoid behaving in such a destructive manner if we would embrace God’s word that says, “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Ephesians 4:29

Can you imagine what humanity would look like if we only said things that were helpful, encouraging, inspiring and uplifting to others and treated our words as a gift?

The focus would be off our insecurities and cutting others down to make ourselves feel better as we focused on lifting others up. It’s a world-changing and life-giving concept, to use our words to build others up. I believe that as I turn to God to define who I am and who I’m created to be in Christ, that I’ll be released of the handcuffs of gossip in my life. As I pursue knowing Jesus in a deeper way in my life, I’m reminded daily that I’m created in God’s image to bring light, hope and love to the world, not gossip. I’m praying you will exchange hurtful, foul language today for some good old fashion, home grown Jesus happy talk.