A few months ago I was having a fantastic time playing outside with my kids.
Well, it was fantastic until I received an unexpected text on my phone.
The text was from a friend whose words and actions shocked and wounded me.
Instead of confronting the friend, or even stopping to pause and ponder, I immediately knew who I wanted to report this outrageous situation to.
I knew of someone who would enjoy sharing this juicy story with me, so I began to search for their name on my contacts list, and as I did, an image appeared in my mind’s eye. It was an image of me going on a walk.
I stopped typing, looked up into the empty sky, and let this strange vision play out.
In the vision, I had a purse over my shoulder, and inside the purse was a very disgusting smelly diaper. I began walking towards my friend’s house (the friend I was going to text), and when I arrived, I took the nasty diaper out of my purse and handed it to her.
She looked at me, puzzled, and asked, “What am I supposed to do with this?”
I shrugged and said, “I don’t know?”.
She then accepted the diaper, placed the diaper in her own purse, and we parted ways.
The vision ended.
And suddenly the Lord said to my thoughts, “Ashley! What you are about to gift your friend is GARBAGE.
Gossip is nothing but trash.”
He was RIGHT! Not only was it trash, but the Bible describes slander as “evil & poisonous”.
He reminded me that we are to be “the fragrance of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15a), not the stench of someone exposing others every time they have a “secret disagreement”.
Whatever is easily on our tongue to speak about is what we are full of.
Luke 6:45 says “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
This analogy of the purse/diaper has impacted me so greatly in the last few months. God has my full attention in this area that I struggle with, and I am so grateful that He was kind enough to interrupt me from spreading slander on that day.
He cares for us!
Acts 17:27 “That they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us.”
Until next time…. AL.
Purse photo credit:
Women Bag from freepnglogos.com
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