FaithFULL Living - Playing God - Gossip and Boasting about Tomorrow

Are you a gossip? We live in a social society where we share in each other’s lives. We are also curious people, always desiring to be “in the know.”

Yet, gossip is not helpful. Gossip actually serves to break the trust of those people around you. The Bible has a lot of important statements regarding gossip.

What’s Wrong with Gossip?

Everyone likes a good story, right? Well, not necessarily. What about the person the story is about? Does that person like the story? Probably not. Spreading rumors only hurts others and destroys our credibility. Who is going to trust us with anything when they think we’ll tell everyone else?

Gossip is also a way we judge others, which really isn’t our job. God is in charge of judging people, not us. Gossip really only ends up creating greed, hate, envy, murder.

Gossip is also a sign that we are not really active in our faith and in our lives. If you think about it, the busier we are, the less time we have to gossip. We no longer have the time to get wrapped up in someone else’s life. Gossip is bred out of boredom. It may start as a simple conversation about people, and then escalates quickly. The Bible clearly tells us to do more than discuss other people’s lives.

Leviticus 19:16, Proverbs 11:13, Romans 1:29, 1 Timothy 5:13, Matthew 7:1, Proverbs 18:8 –

So What Do I Do About Gossip?

First, if you catch yourself falling into gossip – stop. If you don’t pass-on the gossip there is nowhere for it to go. This includes gossip magazines and television. While it may not seem as “sinful” to read those magazines, you are contributing to gossip.

Also, when you are faced with a statement that may or may not be gossip, check out the facts. For instance, if you hear someone has an eating disorder, go to the person. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to the person yourself, and the rumor is something serious, you may want to go to a parent, minister, or youth minister. Getting someone to help in a serious situation is not gossip as long as the information stays with you and the person you go to for help.

If you want to avoid gossip, focus on creating helpful and encouraging statements. Let the gossip end with you and remember the Golden Rule – if you don’t want people to gossip about you, then don’t participate in gossip.

Proverbs 26:20 – Deuteronomy 13:14 – Matthew 7:12 – Ephesians 4:29 –

Boasting about Tomorrow

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.~ Spanish Proverb

Tomorrow is never. ~ Arabian Proverb

Make me a beautiful word for doing things tomorrow; for that is surely a great and blessed invention. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say --
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have Lived today.
~ John Dryden

Do not allow idleness to deceive you; for while you give him today, he steals tomorrow from you. ~ A. F. Forester

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints tomorrow with prophetic ray!
~ Lord Byron

Hope ever tells us tomorrow will be better. ~ Tibullus

Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray!
~ Lord Byron

I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday, and I love today. ~ Wiliam Allen White

Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them, and the evils bear patiently, and sweetly; for this day only is ours;— we are dead to yesterday, and are not born tomorrow.  ~ Jeremy Taylor

What one loses today one may gain tomorrow. ~ Don Quixote

Fear not tomorrow's mischance. ~ Turkish Proverb