Hi all....and wonderful days to all...

[Endless Moments]

I had posted this message somewhere else and was blessed to recieve one response (until I looked this morning and I now have 4 Praise God!..:o))! I asked if there was somewhere else I should post to try to get help with a lesson I'm working on and was given the link to here so here's my first post....
need your help please


Hi all,
I need your help on something I'm working on to do for the youth and whoever else.....the topic is......gossip......If you're willing to share and if it's okay to MAYBE use ( cause I probably won't use them all....really hoping to get lots of response here...lol) your story of how gossip has effected you in your life (if it ever has). But here's the catch....if you do decide to help me with this I would like for you to find a bible verse or two or how ever many you want about gossip. I'm trying to get as many different views on this as I can so I can come up with something that will really grab our youth and myself so I can improve this area of my life....no not to be better at it but to stop it. I'll probably post this same email online at different sites to seek help there too. But I would love to have the help from people I know so please if you would ......HELP....thanks and Hugs to all.....God Bless....Teresa
So anyways....I have in my mind the way I want to do this and I'm sharing so anyone who may want to use it/improve it can and we all can learn....I'm gonna have someone as the victim of gossip.....someone as Jesus....someone as Satan...and some of the newer youth to help me out and I'm not telling them their part until the night I the lesson.....I'm gonna make strips of paper with all types of gossip on them and add alittle something more with each strip....just like gossip is in real life....then I'll have these in a bag and go around our fellowship hall and just drop them all over the place....then I'll have the youth and adults that are over there to help me pick up all the gossip and put it back in the bag but....the newer youth that I choose I ask them to slip a couple of strips into their pockets and when I look at them ask them to read what it says...while I'm tyring to teach the lesson....the victim will hurt and cry all over again....tears will flow from Jesus' eyes and Satan will be saying stuff like....that's my boy....preach it.....that's right....that's my works being done and laughing at Jesus....I'll continue to do the lesson and two weeks will have passed and someone else will jump up and say.....and I heard she did this and of course all the added stuff too....and the victim and Jesus and Satan will continue to do their things.....3 months go by...and so on and so on.....with my Bible verses printed out for them and read during the lesson so they can have them at home in times that they/I need them we will have them. But I want them/I to realize that just because I/we have stopped spreading the gossip from our lips it still goes on months later and the victim/person is still hurting from it and Satan is still laughing at us and Jesus is still hurting and sad about it...We are suppose to lift us brother and sisters up in God's world not tear them apart! So...that's my reason for asking for help because I was it ot grab them/me and make it something that they/myself will share with others so there's a little bit of hurt stopped in this world....any help will be wonderful!!!!!!!!!Thanks in advance again...~~GOD BLESS~~!!! Teresa

 

[KleinerApfel]

Teresa, it's a great aim to teach against gossip, and definitely biblical.
However, are you sure this is the best way?

I feel that teaching, demonstrating and reinforcing desirable behaviour would be a more positive approach.

In otherwords; don't spend too long telling them what NOT to do, but encourage them in what TO do.

For instance talk together with your group about the importance of such things as: trust, telling the truth in love, taming the tongue, being gentle with out words, building up each other by encouragement.

The negative side, the enemy's destructive ways, should warrant relatively little attention.

Numbers 13 tells of how a "bad report" caused trouble.

James speaks of "taming the tongue."

This site will help you find some other relevant scriptures:

http://wbsa.logos.com/default.asp

One or two to start with:

Proverbs 17
9 He who covers over an offense promotes love,
but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

Proverbs 26
20 Without wood a fire goes out;
without gossip a quarrel dies down.
21 As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire,
so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
22 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
they go down to a man's inmost parts.

God bless, Susana

 

[Endless Moments]

That's great....lots of info. and a good way to try to pass it on to the youth/self also....but knowing where these youth are coming from my way might grab their attention better....but throwing some of your way in the mix also and uuummmm uuuummmm this thing is getting good....:o)) Thank you a billion....Teresa

 

[KleinerApfel]

You're welcome!

You say: "knowing where these youth are coming from" - I wonder if this means they are even MORE ready to hear some positive, affirming stuff...

I hope it goes down well.

Blessings, Susana

 

[jbarcher]

I feel that teaching, demonstrating and reinforcing desirable behaviour would be a more positive approach.

In otherwords; don't spend too long telling them what NOT to do, but encourage them in what TO do.

For instance talk together with your group about the importance of such things as: trust, telling the truth in love, taming the tongue, being gentle with out words, building up each other by encouragement.

I'd just like to underscore this. (I count as youth. )

I have a...well, sad testimony, but I will only say that people who have promoted a lifestyle, and who did not live according to that, AND who were FAR AWAY enough for me not to know them, made me believe that what they were promoting was a joke.

May the love of Christ contain you!