Watch What You Say

Watch What You Say

Argue your case with your neighbor,

and do not reveals the secrets of another,

or the one who hears will reproach you,

 and the evil report of you will not pass away.

Proverbs 25:9-10

The summer after my second grade year, our family moved to a new home.  It was a little brick rancher, too small for our family of five, but with a huge corner lot that allowed my father to build on a new kitchen, family room, bedroom and bath.  We thought our new home was perfect.  Our neighbor to the south disagreed, and sued us for property line infringement.  My father quietly contacted a lawyer, and sought advice from a family friend who was a judge.

Mama took a different approach.  She made the whole affair a family project: recording the comings and goings of our neighbor, taking clandestine photos of his own property line problems, spreading the gory details throughout the entire neighborhood, and rallying our neighbors against our accuser.  The suit was eventually thrown out of court, much to my father’s relief, but our relationship with our neighbor was beyond repair.

Learning to keep my mouth shut has been a life-long process.  I vowed that I would never use gossip about friends and neighbors to teach “life lessons” to my kids, but it sometimes happened anyway.  Gossip has such a sweet flavor because it makes us feel so much better about ourselves.  It took awhile for me to learn the harsh lesson that those who will gossip with us will also gossip about us.

Solomon, the wisest man ever known, advised: 

Keep any argument between you and your adversary. 

My father, the wisest man I’ve ever known, advised: 

Learn to zip your lip!

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Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life.

Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life.

Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.

Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.

Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.

The United Methodist Hymn, No. 600