“A gossip goes around revealing a secret,
but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence.”
Proverbs 11:13

We live in a culture that has made gossip a glossy commodity. There are magazines, websites, TV shows, and social media accounts dedicated to revealing the secrets, the inside scoop, the dirt on people’s lives. Gossip has become entertainment. This is true even if you never pick up a tabloid or succumb to clickbait. Gossip thrives around the proverbial water coolers of our lives. At school pick. In the corners of the church. Lingering in the lunch room. On the soccer sidelines or in the back of the dance studio. People’s ears perk up when there is something juicy or cutting or unbelievable to share. It’s this enticing attention that often compels us to be the one who spills the secret.

But the Bible is clear that how we use our words matters. Gossip is not godly. If we are women of faith, women of the Word, then we need to also be women of our word. If something is shared with us in confidence, we honor the Lord by keeping that confidence.

As God is trustworthy with the tender places of our hearts and hard parts of our stories, may we tend well to the hearts and stories entrusted to our care.