Morgan Blake, sports writer for the Atlanta Journal, wrote, “I am more deadly than the screaming shell from a howitzer. I run without killing. I tear down homes, break hearts, and wreck lives. I travel on wings of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me. I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice, no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as the sands of the sea and often as innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive. My name is Gossip.”
There truly are times when silence is golden, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise,” (Proverbs 10:19). Someone named the seven misses who are trouble makers. Here they are misunderstanding, misinterpretation, misquotation, misinformation, misrepresentation, misconstruction and misconception.
An unknown author said it with poetry supported by Bible verses:
Guard with thy lips; none can know (Proverbs 13:3)
What evil from the tongue may flow (James 3:5-6).
What guilt, what grief may be incurred (Jude 11)
By one incautious word (Mark 6:22, 25, 26).
Be “slow to speak,” look well within (Proverbs 4:5)
To check what there may lead to sin (James 1:25).
And pray unceasingly for (Colossians 4:2)
Lest unaware thou be betrayed (Luke 21:34).
Condemn not, judge not, for man (1 Corinthians 4:3)
Is not given his brother’s faults to scan (Matthew 7:3).
The task is God’s and His above (Malachi 7:3)
To search out an subdue His own (1 Corinthians 9:27).
Indulge no murmurings, oh, restrain (Philippians 2:14-15)
Those lips so ready to complain (Job 27:4)
And if they can be numbered, count (Psalm 103:2-3)
Of one day’s mercy the amount (Lamentations 3:23).
Show vain discussions, trifling themes (Titus 3:9)
Dwell not on earthly hopes and schemes (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).
Let words of wisdom, meekness, love (James 3:13)
They heart’s true renovations prove (Luke 6:45).
Set God before thee; every word (Genesis 17:1)
Thy lips pronounce by His is heard (Psalm 139:4).
Oh, couldst thou realize this thought (Luke 12:2)
What care, what caution would be taught (Luke 12:3).
Dr. David Bouler of Global Faith Ministries, Chattanooga, Tennessee, contributed this column to the Journal Review.
