TENDENCY TO GOSSIP

It frightens me how much I want to use this space to gossip. No, not the kind of gossip that you think of when you see supermarket tabloids: "Did you know that so-and-so likes so-and-so?" "And so-and-so and so-and-so's marriage is on the rocks?" I was never really into that.

I'm talking more like nasty thoughts or unfavorable opinions that I have towards certain people: "What they said was hurtful to me." "That was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen." "I don't like her." These kinds of thoughts come up. And you can do two things with them: 1) tell the person, or 2) don't. So if you decide on #2, you can then decide to a) keep it in, or b) tell someone else. And like I said, it's frightening how easily I want to decide on B. I think that's gossip.

By and large, it's probably right to just have your beef with the person. It's always better to go to the face than to go behind the back. But sometimes, you just have a passing thought, not worth sharing to anyone. Disciplined and godly people, I believe, learn to let these stray thoughts pass. Shallow and insecure people tend to want to vent them to others.

I don't like that I can be this shallow and insecure. But it strikes me how quickly my thoughts will turn this way, when I sit down and decide what I want to blog about today.