For the past four days I've been blogging about the topic of gossip.
I've referenced Sheri Rose Shepherd's book, Fit for Excellence, and her the three forms of gossip she discusses: "general gossip", "silent gossip" and "godly gossip".
In this final post on gossip, I'd like to list the five questions Shepherd poses to herself before speaking about others (pg. 137):
1. Why am I sharing this information?
2. Will it hurt someone's reputation?
3. Will it benefit the person listening?
4. Am I willing to let others use my name as a reference?
5. If God were visibly present here with us, would we continue?
If we keep these five questions in mind, we'll most likely never say something negative about someone else. Instead, we'll make an effort to say positive things!
Shepherd leaves us with an important thought to remember: if someone will gossip to you, they'll most likely gossip about you (137)! Let's all make a special effort to lift each other up with kind and encouraging words and leave the judging to the only One who is qualified to judge us: the Lord Jesus.
There is an EXCELLENT book on the market titled "Words That Hurt, Words That Heal" It's written by Rabbi Joseph Teluskin. He talks about words and how those words absolutely affect people. The two examples that most stick out in my mind is the dinner party that someone spent weeks planning and executing. Then the guest says "oh did you notice the dirty bathroom?" That is so awful and hurtful.
ReplyDeleteThe other example that really stuck in my mind...even if you really like someone, if you speak of that person in the company of someone who does not care for the person, you actually end up putting the person in an uncomfortable situation as they don't share your enthusiasm for the person. Interesting concept huh?