Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”
He also said,
“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem;
and let Canaan be his servant.
May God enlarge Japheth,
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant.”
(Genesis 9:20-27 ESV, bold mine)

All too ofter we share news that’s not ours to share, and sometimes we share news that it’s not our place to share.

Did you know that when you share news that’s not yours, not only do you bring shame to the person/people that you speaking of… but you also bring a certain shame on yourself.

When you share shaming news of others you tell people things like:

I’m not trustworthy.

I don’t really love people.

I feel the need to look important.

I don’t care about people as much as I care about me.

This person I’m telling you about… yeah, they don’t really matter.

That’s NOT what you want people to be hearing as the undercurrent of your communication.

We find ourselves telling people MUCH MORE than we ought. Let’s challenge ourselves to STOP MID SENTENCE if necessary.