An old story tells of a woman who repeated gossip about her neighbor, and soon the whole town knew about it. Later, the woman who spread the rumors learned that they were not true. Because she was sorry for what she had done, she went to an elder in the town who was known for his wisdom. He told her to get a bag of feathers and drop the individual feathers along a road. The woman did that, and then she returned to the elder the next day. He told her to go and collect the feathers and bring them back to him. The woman searched for the feathers along the road and could not find them because the wind had carried them away. She returned to the elder, who said, “It’s easy to scatter feathers but impossible to get them back.” This is true about gossip! It is easy to spread hurtful words, but once you do, you can never completely undo the damage.
Gossip destroys friendships. It drives a wedge between people that might never go away. Gossipers often speak of the faults and failures of other people or reveal potentially embarrassing or shameful details of someone’s life. Before we repeat anything about someone else, we should make sure that we have all of the facts. We should also decide if the information we are repeating will do more harm than good. “Mean-spirited slander is heartless; quiet discretion accompanies good sense A gadabout gossip can’t be trusted with a secret, but someone of integrity won’t violate a confidence” (Proverbs 11:12-13).
Gossip destroys our souls. Satan wants us to spread lies and rumors about other people because he is the father of lies. When we delight in bringing other people down, we are really bringing ourselves down.
Gossip can tear people apart;
It can drive a spear into someone’s heart.
When false rumors and hurtful words are repeated,
They can never be truly deleted.
When we repeat things that are not true,
We cause others to feel sad and blue.
So we must stop spreading words of hate,
Because once a life is destroyed, it is too late!
