Caught You!!!



Don't you just love it when you catch someone you really don't like doing something wrong?  You have the opportunity, either openly or alone, to gloat just a little bit -- OK, a lot -- about them and their misdeed and how you knew all along just how bad they were.  Life is really good for a little while.  And if you can catch them more than once, life is really good!

It even makes you feel a little superior to those you love when you find them in an indiscretion.  Come on now, admit it!  There's that little human part of you that says, "I knew I was just a little better than you."  It doesn't last very long and you only feel that way if the indiscretion is a minor infraction.  It's called being human. As much as we try not to, that old ego jumps right in and there you are!

And then there are those days that you find yourself doing things you neither believe in or intended to do.  But there it is.  Even as it's happening you think, 'Wait!  I shouldn't be doing this!  I should stop this now!'  But you don't.  You let it continue and it bugs you the rest of the day.  You go home at night and sit down to relax and enjoy the evening ... and there it is again.  You've tried to shove it aside all day.  You've told yourself that it wasn't so bad, it was just a little thing.  But it's feeling bigger and bigger.

Then you just know.  You must acknowledge that you were wrong.  Remember the old Happy Days show where Ritchie teaches Fonzie how to say, "I was wrong?"  That word just won't come out of his mouth.  He tries and tries, but he is so accustomed to being cool, to being right, he just can't make the word come out. And then he says it, and not only does he feel better, but so does Ritchie.  And he  says it over and over again, because it makes him feel so good!

Well, that was me this week.  I didn't hit anyone.  I didn't slander anyone.  I just gossiped about an on-going situation in my life with an innocent bystander.  She had no part in anything that happened.  There was nothing she could do about any of it.  All I accomplished was to lessen another person in her eyes; someone she had thought rather highly of.  Someone who has not been unkind to my face but has been hateful behind my back.  My friend was obviously upset when I shared my 'information.'

And did it help me in any way to share it?  No.  Even at the time I was saying it, I knew I should stop.  And afterwards I felt worse.  I knew immediately it was wrong.  I had a sleepless night.  The next morning I faced my friends, who also shared in my indiscretion, and told them that I would be apologizing to our friend for my part in what we had done.  My friend was very gracious and accepted my apology.  She even told me that I had nothing to be sorry about.  But I did, and I know it.  I hope this is another lesson learned!

How easily we recognize when others err!  How quickly we point fingers and accuse!  And just as easily we are in the wrong.  Don't you just hate that!

Proverbs 18:8 – “The words of gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”