Stop Gossiping!!!

Proverbs 26:20 "Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down." Proverbs 26:22 "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts." If you have seen the movie The Nutty Professor you are probably familiar with the phrase "women be shoppin', well I made my own version and said "People be talkin'. You ever have someone tell you someone else's business and in your heart you know you are not supposed to be egging on their gossip but the information that you didn't know is so juicy you proceed on to listen? Don't get me wrong, sometimes we'll gossip and not even know it. Now but See the thing about knowing that juicy information is it can also harm some people because some folks will gossip out of jealousy, hate, pride, and some folks will use gossip to defame one's status. Say you didn't know you're friend Jimmy was secretly a thief, and all this time you thought he was a model student until Richard told you Jimmy robs people's stuff when they invite him over to their house. Now you over here treating Jimmy like a thief. I like how this verse refers to fire and wood because the more wood you add to a fire the bigger the flame goes up and the more gossip Richard continues to add on about Jimmy you come down to the point you hate Jimmy. On the sidenote Jimmy was one of your best friends too. I had was sitting around a couple of folks and they were talking about someone's personal business and one of them stood up and said "let's not gossip", it shocked me because I wouldn't even say that in a situation like that, and it also served as a conviction in telling me to stand up. Gossip is harmful and dangerous and until we stop putting wood in the flame it's going to coninue burning reputations and friendships, and status' of people. (Leviticus 19:16, Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 20:19, Jeremiah 9:4)