Chapter 22 “The scoop on Rumors”

“Donny has really bad breath. I bet he could breath on a match and it would light itself in self defense!”, I said.

My friend pat seemed preoccupied watching other people eat in the lunchroom.  He didn’t smile.  Didn’t laugh.  Nothing.

However, an hour later Donny walked up to me and said, “I hear you said I have bad health? That I’m so weak I couldn‘t even blow a match out or defend myself!”

I couldn’t believe it spread around that quickly…uh…the rumor not Donny’s breath. And like most gossip, it obviously got switched and changed around until it didn’t even sound like what I said in the first place!

“That’s not what I said! I said you had bad breath!”, I pleaded realizing that this didn’t get me off the hook.

Gossip is a horrible thing and my school is full of it. In fact, you know who gossips the most? Wait, if I tell you, then i’ll be gossiping.

Sometimes its hard to know what’s gossip and what’s information that needs to be shared.  For example, if someone is being bitten by a shark I’m pretty sure they don’t care if you tell a lifeguard about it. Besides, they are probably too busy flopping around in the water to even care about gossip. However, if someone has something bad or embarrassing happen to them then they probably don’t want us talking about it. I should have known better because there was gossip about me once.

Last year I liked this girl named Jennifer. I only told one person which might have been fine had the microphone not been on.

You see, my principal lets me make the morning announcements on the school intercom every morning. One morning I was announcing that our school was going to have a talent show.

“Hey everyone! Average Boy here letting you know that the school is going to have a talent show for all you talented people out there. The rest of you without talent…and you know who you are…in fact we all know who you are thanks to last year’s talent show…can come out as well because we need audience members! On a personal note, I think it’d be great if there isn’t any booing this year. Speaking of, I’ll be getting my band, ‘Big Bob B and the Alliterations‘, together again this year. Oh, and if anyone is listening in room 123 right now, please explain to Donny what the word alliteration means!”

That’s when my principal interrupted me.

“Bob! Didn’t we decide that you should just read the announcements exactly as they are written?”, she said.

“Ok,”, I joked.  “But i’ll need a pen to write down my changes.”

Next, i had to play a few prerecorded messages. I put in the tape and pressed “Play”. At least, I thought I pressed “Play“. Turns out I pushed “Pause” and the entire school could hear everything my principal and I were saying through my microphone!

“so are you excited about the talent show?” my principal asked.

Yeah,” answered.  “I might invite this girl named jennifer so she can see me play my triangle!  Speaking of, can we pass a school rule that kids cant throw things while the talent is up there playing?”

“Bob, I cant control an angry mob.“, my principal said.

That’s when the school secretary stepped in the room.

“The microphone is still on!”, she said.

“Oh no!”, I said.

“By the way,” Our secretary continued, “which Jennifer? There are six you know?”

Even our school secretary was caught up in gossip!

I grabbed the microphone and tried to recover.

“And we’re back. Some of you may have just heard our principal and me practicing a skit for the talent show called, ‘Who likes Jennifer?’ Its going to be great! See you all there!”

no one fell for it.  For the next week everyone was talking about which Jennifer I liked.  Kids placed bets as to which Jennifer would turn me down. It was total chaos! Three of the Jennifer’s even came up and told me that they were busy the night of the talent show.

“You aren’t the Jennifer!”, I’d say.

“Just making sure.”, they all said.

The funny thing is that it wasn’t even a Jennifer at my school. The Jennifer I liked went to my church! However, gossip doesn’t care if its right or wrong.

I finally got the gossip to stop the night of the talent show. Standing on stage I said, “This song goes out to all six of you Jennifer’s. Its called ‘I promise you aren’t the one.’ I hope you like it…hey, can you wait to throw things until after we start playing?”

The point is, I should have known not to say anything about Donny. It’s always best think about what you are saying at all times. If what you are about to say might hurt someone’s feeling or start a bad rumor, dont say it. The golden rule fits here as well. Don’t say things about others that we don’t want said about us.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go apologize to Donny just as soon as I can find some mouth wash and some breath mints.

Super Average advice:
words hurt.  Don’t believe it?  Lift a dictionary over your head and drop iton your foot.  See, words do hurt. 
the person who said, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but workds can never hurt me,” was probably never called “loser” or “studid,” or had mean rumors about him spread everywhere.  comments like that are painful.  They leave scars. 
One of the most dangerous things about words is that they can’t be ripped out of thin air and placed back in your mouth.  once a word escapes your lips, its out there. you can try to take back what you say and ask for forgiveness, but many times the damage is already done.  that’s why its always a good idea to think carefully before you speak.  here are a couple of reasons why:

the tongue is powerful.  not only is the tongue one of the strongest muscles in your body(try lying flat on your face and doing a tongue push-up), but it also forms every word that leaves your mouth.  dont let that little red muscle fool you into thinking its only purpose is to taste food and lick ice-cream cones.  jusus’ younger brother james wrote, “The tongue is the most evil part of the body.  it pollutes the whole person” (james 3:6)
those are strong words.  they probably hurt the tongue’s feeling.  poor tongue.
but james also says the sign of a mature person is the ability to control the tongue (james 3:2).  you can tell a lot about a person by the things that come out of his mouth.

think about what you might say in these situations:
-you smash your thumb with a hammer while you are building a fence
-you hear your class’s straight A student flunked a test
-a group of kids is making fun of a new student and invites you to join in.

would your tongue form kind and good words in these scenarios?  Would filthy and hurtful language fly out of your mouth?  or would you be asking yourself, why am i building a fence?

gossip hurts relationships.  if you

re known for spreading rumors or cutting people down, chances are you’ll be pretty lonely.  Proverbs 11:13 says, “A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.”
when you spread a secret, you lose trust.  when you make up a nasty rumor, you damage another person.  people want friends they can count on-not friends that run on at the mouth.  by watching your words, you’ll get yourself in less trouble and become somebody that others want to be around.

God’s guide:
read romans 1:28-31
-look at the list of wicked things people do when they dont
follow God.  does anything on the list surprise you?

-why do you think gossiping is included in this list?

-explain why you think gossiping is so dangerous.

Bonus Activity: You and your friends have a bad breath competition. Each kid has 30 seconds to eat anything they want and then you vote who has the worse breath. The winner gets to breath one more time on everyone else! (note: this game is best played right when you wake up!)