Lands sake, Oneta, what are you up to now? Well, I am smitten today by a new idea rumbling round in my head. It is just what the question asks. I’ll change it a bit—Into what have you spoken negativity?
What have I spoken against so often, and unfortunately, many times with others, turning it into a gossip session.
The Country? Well I have said, “It is going to hell in a handbasket.” Maybe not those words but I’ve said we are on a downhill slope. What if there is a giant turnaround, entertainment becomes “family-friendly” and the traditional stable families become fashionable again. Will I rejoice or will I spew sour grapes, and refuse to acknowledge that it does seem people are showing a mite more common sense?
The Government? So good ole Joe and Janet Yellen prove statistically that inflation can become a good thing. People have wages that let them make their rent payments for two thousand dollars a month. They even have furniture in their 35,000 square feet houses, and T-Bone steaks on the grill. Will I rejoice or will I spew sour grapes, and say, “Just wait till tax times comes. Then they will be in a fix!”
The Family? The family’s number one couch potato gets a job making a six-figure salary. Why that can’t happen? The whole family knows he is a loser! We have all watched him waste his time and talents.
How about that Son-in-Law? I knew when she married him, he wouldn’t stay once the blossom faded! And it wasn’t just me who thought that, everybody I have mentioned it to feels the same way.
Seriously, Friends, I am being bothered about how gossip can get so rampant about an issue or person, that the gossiper has to become invested in working toward making his dire predictions come true! Otherwise he, himself, will be wrong and “his whole world” will know it. How humiliating!
Proverbs 26:20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
Sweet aroma 
When offered gossip, I was taught to ask these questions:
1. Will this information do you or me any good?
2. Do I need to know what you are going to tell me?
3. Have you talked to the person involved? (Obviously, if they tell you without asking, these three are moot.)
4. Do I have a responsibility to address this rumor?
5. How can I approach the person discussed without offending?
See Matthew 18:15-18 and note the intention all along is not for punishment, but for restoration of a relationship.
❤️&🙏, c.a.
CA, that is what the Bible teaches. Great harm comes from not heeding these instructions. When gossip somehow “does a flip” and they (gossipers) find themselves having to lie or cover up to save themselves, then it becomes a matter of having to defend themselves. They do that by doubling down on trying to prove their “reports” were necessary.
You have given rich food for thought in this post. What is honest comment with a pithy twist and what is malicious in intention. All media is negative when the press to sell papers becomes the reason for writing. We as bloggers want truth, but expressed with a non malicious bite to it. Or if we choose to write only of the holy and pure,,,,,,read, listen and connect with others in the blogging sphere but let’s indeed be aware of not making into gossip a remark not intended to incite but to inform, and reflect the writer’s perspective. This is why Oneta, I love your homespun spin on things while assuring us ALL you indeed KNOW to Whom you are accountable, The One Who has saved your soul for eternity. Thank you.
Faye, I surely do hope all readers come to my blog with such an open mind to understand my messages. You say such kind words. Thank you.
I do like a good t-bone steak.
Yeah. Just wait until the temporary/transitional inflation has passed! 😀
People are so bored that they follow the ever changing news cycle like it’s a religion. It’s hard to avoid, but sometimes you have to forget who’s “in charge” and go take a walk with the squirrels. They’re way nicer haha