A prominent minister once said, “I have heard people confess to breaking every one of the Ten Commandments except the ninth: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ Yet this is the one we all break most often.” What irreparable damage has been done to innocent people by thoughtless indulgence in this vice!
Here is some good advice to follow when you are tempted to gossip.
1. Remember that you are not perfect. Christ’s classic rebuke to self-appointed judges was, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.” Methodist preacher Hazen Warner told of a woman who was forever complaining about the untidiness of her neighbor. One day she gleefully drew a friend to her window and said, “Look at those clothes on the line, gray and streaked!” The friend replied gently, “If you’ll look more closely, I think you’ll see that it’s your windows, not her clothes, that are dirty.”
2. Be sure you know all the facts. There may be extenuating circumstances that you do not understand. Years ago the Sioux Indians had an impressive ritual. A brave who was about to set forth to visit other tribes would raise his hands toward the sky and pray: “Great Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked two weeks in his moccasins! ”
3. Look for the good in people. Dr. Walter L. Moore told of a lecturer who began his addresses by taping a square of white paper on the blackboard. Then he made a tiny black spot in the center. Asked what they saw, all present replied, “A black dot.” The speaker said, “Don’t any of you see a large square of white?” Develop the habit of seeing the good in people. Comment on it. Practice the art of good gossip. It is amazing how this habit of searching out the best in others enlarges our own souls.
4. Avoid playing God. Leave all judgments of others’ sins to God. Arrogating to ourselves the functions of the Deity is as presumptuous as it is irreverent. “The separation of people into sheep and goats will take place only on the Last Day,” Bishop Fulton J. Sheen warned. “Until then we are forbidden to make the classification.”