EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

 

Chia tea latte with skim milk and cinnamon on top, please.

That’s my favorite beverage; tea (my mother always drank tea), milk (to get my quota of calcium for the day with lower fat), cinnamon (good for the heart). The Interchange, Cabin Coffee and Caribou all make one that is tasty and amazing!

I was recently waiting at a coffee shop for a friend. I hadn’t ordered my latte yet and I was looking at my phone trying to mind my own business. However, the table next to me was talking, quite loudly. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, really, but it was hard not to hear the conversation. I wish I hadn’t. They were talking, and not kindly, about a relative.

One of them commented, “I know she hates me; I really don’t care but…blah, blah, blah.”

I wanted to get up and defend the poor soul. She couldn’t be as bad as they talked, could she?

Proverbs 26:20 is printed on a sticky note on my desk to remind myself to be kind with my thoughts and in the words I speak about others.

(NIV) “Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down.”

Years ago, during a Bible study, us mommas and our babies were sitting on the floor and I remember sharing prayer requests time. I am not sure who said what, maybe it was me, but one of the wiser gals said something that etched in my mind since that moment.

“There can be a fine line between prayer requests and gossip. We need to be cautious.”

Psalm 141:3 NIV: “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.”

When we were little kids and would point a finger at another, our moms would tell us, “You have three pointing right back.” That is a good parallel to how it is when we gossip about one another. It does not feel good and is unkind.

“Only by grace are we able to tame our tongue. Gossip exposes you don’t understand grace for others. Our words are either poison or fruit to others,” from a Red Rocks Church sermon from Oct. 27.

Father Mike Schmitz (podcast April 25, 2018, and Jan. 27, 2017) has great insight on gossip.

Is it true? Is it good? Is it useful?

1 Peter 3:10 NIV. “For, whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.”

Speak life.

Robin (Beckman) Gudal, intentional in life, is a wife, momma, nana, friend, and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.