Gossip

Mildred, the church gossiper and self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business.

Several members did not approve of her extra curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

She made a mistake, however, when she accused Henry, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon.

She emphatically told Henry and several others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing.

Henry, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny. He said nothing.

Later that evening, Henry quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house...walked home....and left it there all night.

You gotta love Henry!

James 3:5-10 (NKJV)
5Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
6And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
8But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
10Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.