Watching our words

Psalm 141:3 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.

One of the most memorable moments from the classic musical The Music Man is in the opening number when Professor Harold Hill stands up to unveil his hidden identity to a train car full of passengers who just spent an entire song spreading gossip about him. While Hill seems to thrive off the controversy surrounding him, not everyone has that same thick skin when being gossiped about. This is a very humbling question to admit, but when was the last time you gossiped? When was the last time you redirected a conversation that was headed toward gossip? If I am being honest, I’m not sure I would want to answer this out loud. We gossip because it promises us a burst of feeling like we are in control. We gossip because it makes us feel better about ourselves by putting others down. Proverbs 16:26 tells us that gossip creates strife and separates. Why would we want that? Because in the moment, separation seems more enticing than unity does. But once the moment passes, gossip often leaves us with more unresolved conflict among others and within ourselves.

While it is so important to have trusted friends to vent our emotions to, there is a difference between intentional verbalizing to gain a better perspective and unconstrained conversation to gain a sense of control. A good rule of thumb is to ask ourselves: Have I prayed about this more than I’ve talked about this? We can bring all our words to our Most Trusted Friend. God will shift our heart to where our desire to control the narrative through gossip becomes less than our desire to submit the entire narrative to Him. We can trust Him with our scrambled emotions, with our need for control, and with every word that wants to come out of our mouths.

God, please forgive me when I have used hurtful or unnecessary words to gain a sense of control. Help me trust you to guard every word that comes out of my mouth.