Mum is the Word

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
MUM IS THE WORD
Prov 11:13
13 A gossip betrays a confidence,
but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.
NIV
If I am not part of the problem or not part of the solution I have no business knowing any of the details, so don’t tell me about someone else. Please don’t even cloak your gossip as a prayer request either. I don’t know why it is so darn pleasing to some believers to share personal information about another person with everyone they know. I sure keep my personal stuff out of the hands and minds of all my fellow believers. I do have a couple of men with whom we are mutual confidants, but that is it. I simply do not trust most believers I know because I am absolutely sure anything I say to them of a personal nature, especially if it is juicy, will end up on the evening news. Is that bad? Should I not be able to trust any believer? On the other hand every believer should be able to trust me not to betray anything they tell me in confidence. Maybe that is the key word here. Maybe most things shared are in hopes of being spread throughout the land, all things other than a secret that is. If I share a secret I darn well hope and pray the friend I share it with holds it and keeps it within, as well as keeps the same love toward me as before the secret was known. This is my duty as well when my friend shares his secret. I also firmly believe any shared secrets must be shared and kept within the same gender. The trap which exists outside that rule is way too obvious. No, I shall maintain my secrets and those of my friends deep within myself. I will not be a part of that hideous chain of never ending stories and prolonged over detailed prayer requests for my sisters, friend who has a brother whose life-long friends niece is in trouble with the law because she stole something from her best friends cousins brother. What a crock! Maybe this gossip thing is why no one ever really asks for prayer for themselves. It sure is for me, unless of course I am asking for them to pray about something good in my life to happen, like my book to sell a lot of copies. So, I come back to the beginning, if I am not part of the problem or the solution, I do not need the details, which are merely gossip anyway. Mum is the word.