Be Impeccable With Your Word
One thing I love about coaching is the magic that's created when I chat with my clients. Just today, I was coaching someone who brought up Don Miguel Ruiz' The Four Agreements - a book I read many years ago but hadn't thought of recently. It's a great one.
My client was talking about Agreement One - Be impeccable with your word - in a context I hadn't considered: GOSSIP. Sometimes we talk about people when:
We can't think of anything to say.⠀
We're jealous of them. ⠀
We are bored or feel bad about ourselves.⠀
We're trying to establish belonging...⠀
Sometimes we talk about people and we call it prayer.
Whatever the reason, if they're not there and you wouldn't say it in front of them it's gossip, and as my client pointed out, it's not being impeccable with our word.
Why does this matter? ⠀
Besides the obvious reasons, (getting caught, foot in the mouth, spreading negative chi, slander etc), the scriptures say gossip is like a morsel that sinks down into our innermost being. A fool's mouth is his ruin and his lips are a snare to his soul. Proverbs 18:7-8
Let that sink down into your innermost being. Yikes.
Keep your innermost being as clean as you can by recognizing and repenting of crap behavior like gossip - no matter how you might rationalize it, ie: "I don't mean to be ugly but..."
STOP IT. YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE UGLY.
And the best in-the-moment trick I know when I catch myself gossiping is to simply STOP TALKING.
The pain of enduring the awkward gap I created in the conversation is a good reminder to not create it again. Then I can repent and change the subject to something generative.
⠀
Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing? My brothers, this should not be! Can both freshwater and bitter water flow from the same spring? James 3:10
ps. Did you know you can get free coaching from me every Friday at Noon CST. Just hop over to Girl Catch Fire on Facebook where I go live each week for 15-20 minutes and go through your most pressing coaching questions. You can ask one in advance or ask me LIVE.
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