Today's Reflection-Wounds of Gossip

Once upon a time, an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested and put behind bars for no fault of his own. Days later, the poor man was proven innocent. After being released, he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.  In court, the old man told the judge, ‘They were just random comments, they did not harm anyone.’

The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man, ‘write all the bad things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut it up into little pieces and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out of your car window. Tomorrow, you come back to hear the sentence.’  The next day, the judge told the old man, ‘Before receiving the sentence, I want you to go out and gather up all the pieces of paper that you threw out of your car window yesterday. The old man said, ‘I cannot do that. The wind spread them all over the place and I will not know where to find them.

"Then the judge replied, ‘The same way, simple words, and comments said in fun, may destroy the honor of a person to such an extent that a person will not be able to fix it.  If you cannot speak well of someone, do not say anything at all.  Let’s all be masters of our mouths, so that we will not be slaves of our words.’ 

‘Gossips are worse than thieves because they steal another person’s dignity, honor, reputation, and credibility which are impossible to restore. So remember, this: ‘when your feet slip, you can always recover your balance but when your tongue slips, you can never recover your words.’ 

James 4:11 Don't speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God's law. But your job is to obey the law, not whether it applies to you. NKJV

Love and Peace,


L Jones