Day 28: Is it gossip or isn't it?

Today's reading — Proverbs 16

What do you do when others gossip? I mean really, tell me what you do by commenting below. It might help another girl! 

I hate gossip. But it hasn't always been that way. In fact, it took me a long, long time to recover from this addiction. That's right, gossip can be ADDICTING! 

And exhilerating. Because finding someone who is equally aggrevated by someone's sinful behavior is like winning a scratch-off lottery ticket. Once you start scratching, you just want to keep buying them. We Christians like to call this type of gossip "venting" and dismiss it as healthy. It's like therapy, you know! 

But check out Proverbs 16: 28....

A perverse woman stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends. 

My daughter read me an American Girl story on this subject not long ago. One girl in a dance class thinks another has stolen her prized locket. She confronts a mutual friend, who tries to talk her friend into having a discussion rather than accusing the girl. In many instances, she gets sucked into the gossip and doesn't stand up for the girl. Even she is in doubt of the truth with all the lies and gossip swirling around. Eventually the girl has to move to a new school because the one girl doesn't stop making her life miserable. In the end, the girl who was the confidante realizes that she might have picked the wrong girl to befriend when the other girl finds the locket in the bottom of her dance bag. 

Sometimes it's hard to avoid gossip. Other times, it's hard to discern what is and isn't gossip. Is some second-hand information OK to share with a friend you are trying to protect? Perhaps rumors that a boy who professes to be a Christian is really looking to take advantage of girls? If you share that information with a friend is it gossiping? 

I think it's important that no matter when or how we speak, we carefully contemplate our words and question our own motives. Are we looking to stir up dissension? Do we know that's the consequence? How would you feel if you were the person on the other end? 

{praying for discernment}
Amy