Busybodies

II Thessalonians 3:11-12 NAS
For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.

This may seem an odd scripture for today but after talking with a friend I thought this maybe a good time to address the life of a busybody. My friend proceeded to tell me of her mother-in-law and her daughter. Both have been gossiping about each other, they don't want to be in the same house together, and the mother-in-law went so far as to say please don't let my daughter be at my funeral. How sad that their lives have grown so much apart that they cannot and will not be referred to in the same sentence.

Hearing this brought back memories of my own life. My children were small at the time and I heard a friend repeat gossip she'd heard about me. I asked where she had heard such a thing and after much hesitation she told me who it was. I was heartbroken when she told me it was my best friend of fifteen years. We had gone to high school together, been witnesses for each other when we married, and were there for each other at the birth of our first child.

I prayed for God to guard my tongue before I confronted her. Her reply was all the things she had been going through she said I was doing. There was no reasoning with her. I finally said. "You should probably check your own back yard before you go accusing others."

Where and how does gossip start? A misspoken word taken in the wrong context or perhaps something in your own life is not going right and it's easier to blame others. Whatever the reason we are to seek God's guidance before we speak. We are to lift each other up.


Dear Heavenly Father I pray for Your guidance to guard my tongue when I speak to others and to lift them in prayer. Amen.