On Gossip...
I like men. I started liking men at a young age. I’m Daddy’s girl after all! (Can’t get out of it, too late now.) I like my husband. He’s a really great guy and is always trying to do the right thing. He bought me a computer game. His logic… well, he likes playing computer games and so, during his deployment, I would like playing computer games. (He’s very thoughtful like that, and yes, Roller Coaster Tycoon is fun… though I still prefer making nuclear meltdowns on my Sims City game… further evidence that I should not be in charge of anyone’s energy grid…) I like my friends’ husbands too. But they think I’m odd…
Anyway, so, men get the short end of the stick fairly often. I’m hard on men when the situation calls, but for the most part, they’re neat. I was talking to my girlfriend recently. She’s having some health and work issues and she moved to a community out in the middle of nowhere in a different state upon marriage. She’s in pretty serious need of Christian women to walk beside her during this time, but she’s afraid to commit to a church. Why?
Gossip.
Her husband isn’t ready to commit to a body of believers and she doesn’t want to be known as “The woman whose husband doesn’t go to church.” Let’s not worry about why her husband does or doesn’t go to church, and concentrate on how we women break each other down with our judgmental gossip.
When you see a woman visiting your church alone, what is your gut reaction? If it is not offer said woman a warm handshake and invite her to sit next to you, you need to examine yourself for sin. I’m talking gut reaction here, normal gut reaction. Our concern should not be why she is there alone if she has a ring on her finger. Our concern should be that she did come to church and extending her a warm welcome.
Ladies, we take care of a man’s needs when we take care of his wife’s needs. We testify the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus when we offer hospitality to a fellow woman in need. And when we gossip about her husband, we, in turn, gossip about her, because we imply that a woman is not married to a respectable man.
Let’s walk the extra mile with someone instead of pushing them back down to the pits of despair.
Anyway, so, men get the short end of the stick fairly often. I’m hard on men when the situation calls, but for the most part, they’re neat. I was talking to my girlfriend recently. She’s having some health and work issues and she moved to a community out in the middle of nowhere in a different state upon marriage. She’s in pretty serious need of Christian women to walk beside her during this time, but she’s afraid to commit to a church. Why?
Gossip.
Her husband isn’t ready to commit to a body of believers and she doesn’t want to be known as “The woman whose husband doesn’t go to church.” Let’s not worry about why her husband does or doesn’t go to church, and concentrate on how we women break each other down with our judgmental gossip.
When you see a woman visiting your church alone, what is your gut reaction? If it is not offer said woman a warm handshake and invite her to sit next to you, you need to examine yourself for sin. I’m talking gut reaction here, normal gut reaction. Our concern should not be why she is there alone if she has a ring on her finger. Our concern should be that she did come to church and extending her a warm welcome.
Ladies, we take care of a man’s needs when we take care of his wife’s needs. We testify the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus when we offer hospitality to a fellow woman in need. And when we gossip about her husband, we, in turn, gossip about her, because we imply that a woman is not married to a respectable man.
Let’s walk the extra mile with someone instead of pushing them back down to the pits of despair.
posted by Consecutive Odds @ 7:24 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:48 PM ,
Barb the Evil Genius said...
I hope I would be friendly, but I hate to say I would probably also be curious. I might wonder if it was someone like you whose husband was deployed, or traveled a lot or whatever. It might be a quite innocent wondering. On the other hand, after my father quit going to church, it was painful having people ask my mother where he was. There's a fine line between caring interest and nosiness, I guess.
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