17. CRITICISM & GOSSIP
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The words of a talebearer are as wounds, & they go down into the innermost parts of the belly (Pro.26:22).
1. Letting things go in one ear & out the other is bad enough, but it's worse when things go in one ear, get all mixed up, & come out the mouth.
2. Don't find fault with what you don't understand.
3. They'll come to you & talk about me, but they'll come to me & talk about you!
4. Try to fix the mistake--never the blame.
5. It's smart to pick your friends--but not to pieces.
6. A man's tongue is like his car. If it gets to knocking too much, he'd better have it overhauled or change it.
7. Christians should watch & pray, & not watch & criticise.
8. If criticising gives you pain, then do it; If it gives you the slightest pleasure, keep your mouth shut.
9. A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown.
10. There is always something wrong with a man, as there is with a motor, when he knocks continually.
11. You don't have to be in a car to run people down.
12. Before I judge my neighbour, let me walk a mile in his shoes.
13. Rare is the person who can weigh the faults of others without putting his thumb on the scales.
14. Critic: One who finds a little bad in the best of things.
15. Before you flare up at someone's faults, take time to count ten--ten of your own.
16. When I point my finger at my neighbour, there are three more pointing back at me.
17. None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.
18. Busy souls have no time to be busybodies.
19. Rumour is a great traveller.
20. Who chatters to you will chatter of you.
21. One eye-witness is better than two hear-says.
22. He who peeps through a hole, may see what will bother him.
23. Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by,
They are good, they are bad,
They are weak, they are strong,
Wise & foolish--so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.
24. What some invent the rest enlarge.
25. He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.(Pro.17:9)
26. Watch out if all you do is condemn & rant & rave & you never drool the sweet honey Love of Jesus!
27. One reason a dog is such a lovable creature is that his tail wags instead of his tongue.
28. There is no venom like that of the tongue.
29 There is so much good in the worst of us, & so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us.
30. The tongue is only three inches long, yet it can kill a man six feet tall.
31. If you must slander anyone, don't speak it, but write it--write it in the sand near the water's edge.
32. You can talk about me as much as you please, I'll talk about you down on my knees.
33. Everytime you throw dirt on someone you lose a little ground.
34. Watch out about belittling other people--you're apt to get belittled yourself!
35. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
36. A lie will go around the World while the Truth is getting its boots on.
37. Watch out what you say about God's anointed--whether it be true or false--if it's going to hurt God's work or His worker.
38. A critical spirit sows dissension, disunity & discord amongst brethren, one of the seven abominations to God!
39. There's no point in running down other people's products unless we have a better one to offer ourselves!
40. Little lessons from the wise, should not commence with "criticise".
41. It's always easier to tear down than it is to build up!
42. Pretty soon most gossips are actually convinced that the stories they are telling are true--they tell them so often they begin to believe them themselves.
43. It's a naughty spirit to tease.
44. A cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.
45. Critics are people who go places & boo things.
46. Two things are hard on the heart--running up stairs & running down people.
47. A hypocrite is a person who pretends to be burying the hatchet when she's only digging up dirt.
48. To escape criticism--do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
49. No matter what mistakes Moses made, God held the people accountable for their own sins & He rebuked them for any criticism of Moses--for what they thought was wrong or even what they knew was wrong.
50. Words are real things! They bless or they curse, they lift up or they knock down, they save or they damn!
51. If someone were to pay you 10 cents for every kind word you spoke about people, & collect 5 cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?
52. Nothing ever happens in a small town, but what you hear makes up for it!
53. When you hear about somebody's bad points, remember that they must also have some good points.
54. There's only one way to change the unruly tongue, & that is to transform the spirit that controls it.
55. Of all the weapons of warfare, the tongue has been the greatest when it gets loose!
56. Too often when you tell a secret it goes in one ear & in another.
57. Someone described a wise man as saying, "You are lord of your tongue, but I am also master of my ears."
58. Passing the buck started in the Garden of Eden. The first form of self-defense is blaming others.
(See also No.1247, FC's "Pastor's Pillow", 1377, 1547.)
59. EXO.23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
60. LEV.19:16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people.
61. PSA. 15:3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
62. PSA.32:9 Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
63. PSA.101:5,7 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within My house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in My sight.
64. PRO.15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.
65. PRO.15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
66. PRO.18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
67. PRO.26:20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.
68. PRO.26:22 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
69. MAT.7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
70. MAT.12:34b For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
71. ROM.2:1-3 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
72. ROM.14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
73. EPH.4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
74. JAM.3:5,6 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and is set on fire of Hell.
75. 1PE.3:9,10 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family