05.04.13 The 11th Driver of Negative Gossip

11. Lack of Self-Control

The lack of self-control involves failure to suppress one’s desires, impulses or emotions. That deficiency is a common catalyst for negative gossip, given that the chatterer often fails to ‘manage his or her tongue’. In some cases, she or he may be unaware that once a word has been ‘spoken’ albeit at the heat of the moment, there is no guarantee that hearers will not publicise it, moreover with distortions; and that one word slipping out of a person’s mouth unchecked can cause damage some of which could even be irreversible. In fact, in James 3:8, the apostle lamented that (ERV): But no one can control the tongue. It is wild and evil, full of deadly poison.

As you may remember at JuaLink, Lulu had a ‘tongue control’ problem. It was that shortfall that had driven her to spurt, in Matayo’s presence, that Eliya and Faraja were dating. What Lulu didn’t know was that by failing to restrain her tongue, her so-called ‘religion’ and the lunch hour fellowships had become a liability to the company since they were fragmenting the workforce rather than fostering unity. The publicity officer was not aware that a person’s religion is useless if one cannot control his or her tongue. We learn this from James 1:26 (NLT) which says: ²⁶If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.