Blowing Gossip

Yellow dandelion blooms dotted our yard. Quickly the blooms changed to seed heads and the wind spread the seeds around our yard. My husband Larry and I didn’t want the dandelion weeds choking out the grass. We worked several days digging up the existing plants. It was never ending and a back-breaking job.

Friends with seven children came over for a visit one afternoon. The children soon tired of visiting inside the house and headed outside. When I looked out the window to check on them, the youngsters had discovered the dandelions. They raced around the yard picking all they could find and then blowing the seeds into the air and at each other.

Oh no, they’re spreading the seeds around the yard before I can dig them and put the seed heads in the trash. The children were completely innocent to the fact they were causing me more work. Blowing dandelion seeds through the air just provided entertainment.

Gossip is a lot like blowing dandelion seeds. The person who blows the seeds doesn’t really know how much harm it will cause and where the seeds will take root. The reporting of the story can give the teller a feeling of importance. The gossip may be told innocently or deliberately, but either way, the seed grows and causes problems.

Before we tell anything about someone else, we need to check on its authenticity with the person who the story is about. If we didn’t witness or hear the news first-hand, but then report it anyway, we are a false witness.

To avoid harming others, we don’t gossip.

“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” James 1:26 (NIV)

Helen L. Hoover