Don't Be A Tattletale

“A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.” (Proverbs 11:13).
When I was a child, about the worst thing anyone could call you was a tattletale. When anyone snitched to an adult, we would all sing song a nursery rhyme that said: “Tattletale, tattletale, hang your britches on a nail. Hang ‘em high, hang ’em low. Hang ‘em on a stereo.” Now that I’m an adult, I have no idea what the semantics mean (I doubt I knew then), but I know that the purpose of the rhyme was to shame the tattletale. Children are big on unity. When one child disassociates himself from the group and exposes another child in an attempt to curry favor, the pack mentality of the group seeks to get the offending party back in line and preserve the integrity of the group. When did adults lose this perspective? We may not be tattletales or talebearers ourselves, but we implicitly encourage them by listening to their gossip. Then there are the “righteous talebearers”: these are the busy bodies that share information about others, so you can pray specifically for them and their situation; however, all along their motivation is to spread gossip, rumors and discord. Talebearers are some of Satan’s greatest tools for disunity and mistrust in the church. Who wants to be real and expose his inner struggles when he knows they will only be fodder for the gossips? Godly men, we must discipline the busybodies in the church, so that God’s house can become a sanctuary and haven where men feel safe to be themselves and tackle the struggles that hinder them in their quest for godliness.