Loose Lips Sink Ships

During World War II, seamen were given the above slogan to remind them to be careful of secretive information given to other men around them. There was the possibility things might not be as they appear.

Your comrades could be the enemy on a suicide mission as they ordered the ship be sunk to the bottom of the deep blue sea. In today’s world, this saying is synonymous with being careful about what comes out of your mouth because the results may be disastrous.

Here are two insights The Bible has into gossips. In Proverbs 11:13 (NIV) “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.” Proverbs 16:28 (MSG) says “Troublemakers start fights, gossips break up friendships.”

“Percy” (see The Best of Me) is a guy in his twenties with a ponytail. He is one of the kindest men I know that is willing to do absolutely anything to help a fellow co-worker. Unfortunately, Percy is one of the biggest gossips in my department.

He gathers people’s information like a woman might collect china (or porcelain) dolls. Percy doesn’t keep secrets. Anything one says is open to be verbally passed on to any colleague that Percy feels is worthy of his insights.  

Sooner or later my daughter and Percy were bound to run into each other at the store all three of us worked at. During her lunch break one evening at the deli, Allena’s decided to talk to the male greeter at the grocery side door with the pony tail. Percy regurgitated to Allena everything I told him about getting out of my greeter job when I was highly agitated with our supervisor. When my daughter repeated her story to her mother and me when she got home from work, I was aware that she’d not seen the greeter’s name badge, but the pony tail was memorable.

I knew this had to be Percy. Though I was upset with Percy for not giving me the chance to mention this information to Allena in my time period, overall I had no one to blame, but myself. I had briefly forgotten Percy’s reputation when I unloaded all my information.

Everything eventually came back in vivid color when my private information came back to slap me in the face. What good would it do to make an enemy of someone I had to work with on a regular basis. Things could uncomfortable between the two of us real fast.

Whether you’re the one giving or receiving gossip, it’s never fun to be involved with deception. If you are the one spreading the rumor, how would feel if someone did that to you? If you are the one damaged by gossip, take the necessary steps to correct the wrong that has happened (even if forgiveness is involved). Make sure to confront issues face-to-face. This is hard, but it is something that needs to happen.