GOSSIP FREE ZONE

Hi family and friends..

We can never really Justify Gossip!!

This is what the Bible tell us about GOSSIP!

Proverbs 11:13A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.

Proverbs 16:28A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.

Proverbs 20:19A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.

2 Corinthians 12:20For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 

Stay Blessed..

Julia

★★Gossip Poem★★

(Author unknown)

★My name is Gossip.
★I am a direct descendant of the father of lies.

★I have no respect for justice.
★I maim without killing.
★I break hearts and ruin lives.
★I am cunning and malicious and I gather strength with age.
★The more I am quoted, the more I am believed.
★My victims are helpless.
★They cannot protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face.
★To track me down is impossible. The harder you try, the more elusive I become.
★I am nobody’s friend.
★Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same.
★I topple governments and wreck marriages.
★I ruin careers and cause sleepless nights, heartaches, and indigestion.
★I make innocent people cry in their pillows.
★I make headlines and headaches.
★Even my name hisses. I am called Gossip.
So.........
Before you repeat a story, ask yourself:
 Is it true

Is it harmless?

Is it necessary?
If it isn’t, why repeat it?

Gossip-Free Zone

 A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow. —Proverbs 25:18

In some offices, you can get fired for gossiping. According to a 2002 survey, the average employee gossips 65 hours a year. One Chicago firm decided to become a "gossip-free zone." They require that employees never talk badly about co-workers behind their backs. If you're caught, you lose your job.

A ministry for people in the entertainment industry takes a refreshing alternative to gossip. They combat it with prayer. Instead of putting down famous people who get in trouble with bad choices, they encourage people to pray for them.

Among God's commands to His people is "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (Ex. 20:16). While this may be talking primarily about lying at judicial proceedings, gossip could also be included in the command because it violates the law of love toward our neighbor. Proverbs uses strong language to describe this use of our words. It's like "a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow" against others (25:18).

Gossip feeds into our natural desires to feel superior to others and to belong or fit in, so combating it in our personal lives can be a challenge. But if we choose to love through prayer, our lives can be a gossip-free zone.  

— Anne Cetas

Lord, forgive us for speaking carelessly
about others to make ourselves look better.
Help us to think before we speak.

Teach usto be loving with our words. Amen.

Let's not form our opinion of people from what we hear from others.

It may not always be correct but just may be repeating what they heard or felt..

GOSSIP!!

Speech has awesome power, and that is to literally redefine reality. Thoughts exist in a separate, private sphere. Once articulated, the thought is no longer a private matter. It becomes an item on the world’s agenda, something to be agreed with or argued; proven or disproven; attended to or ignored.

A person may work side by side with someone for years, and during the entire time harbor the thought that the colleague is "annoying." For all those years, the thought has no power to affect anything or anyone beyond the person thinking it. Then, one day, this person enters into a conversation with a third co-worker, and offers there assessment of the other person as "annoying."

The instant that thought is released into the world, it sets out on a path of destruction.

Now another person’s attention has been drawn to this persons allegedly "annoying mannerisms.

They lose a little respect for them, identities them as a little less competent, a little less appealing.

Inevitably, this new assessment affects their relationship.

It creates a bias in the third person’s mind which they will now confirm every time the "annoying" person does or says anything. And it may go much further. This third person may well share their newfound perceptions as well. It is not even necessary that they believe what they hear. Even if they never seriously think about the statement, it seeps into the subconscious and colors their future assessments of this person’s behavior.