Dear Friends,
R.J. LeTourneau was the inventor of numerous kinds of heavy earth moving
equipment. His company used to make a scraper known as the ‘Model G.’ One day a
customer asked the salesman what the ‘G’ stood for? The salesman replied, “The
‘G’ stands for gossip, because like a talebearer, this machine moves a lot of
dirt and moves it fast.” Winning with People, John Maxwell, p.52.
Proverbs 25: 18 reminds us that “telling lies about others is as
harmful as hitting them with an axe, wounding them with a sword, or shooting
them with a sharp arrow” (Living Bible Translation).
All of us need to be like the little girl who told her mom that
she was a peacemaker in school. “What do you mean,” her mother asked? The
little girl responded, “I knew something, and I didn't tell it.”
Each of us should be careful never to fertilize the grapevine with
a wagging tongue. Guard it, control it, whip it into shape, if need be, but
don't ever let it ever “move a lot of dirt and move it fast.”
“Lock your lips,” was the title of a “Daily Bread” devotional from
years ago that I filed away. The devotional quoted, Proverbs 10:19, “When words
are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” The
devotional went on to say that “Some Christians are like an old shoe- all worn
out but the tongue!” How embarrassing to be numbered among those possessing a
“worn out tongue.”
May our prayer always be, “Lord, guard my tongue from gossip, for
it is like mud thrown against a clean wall. It may not stick, but I know it
leaves a mark.”
Gossip, someone remarked, “Is like accepting stolen property; it
makes you guilty of the crime.”
Lord, guard our lips this and every day from ever sharing stolen
property.
Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom
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