Tricia's Principles for Living

Driving down the street I came into a construction zone. Multiple houses were being built on this particular site. I noticed a sign that read, “Free Dirt! We load!  You Haul!”  As I drove away the thought popped in my mind. This is like gossip and a tattling tongue. A gossip is a person who is willing to load you with free dirt on someone else’s life. with no payment necessary or expected. Well, the gossip really expects a payment.  The gossip wants the satisfaction for you to haul the dirt away and spread it around somewhere else. The gossip’s payment is for you to be the spreader. The cost to you is to have a sullied reputation.  Proverbs tells us that gossip is like cheap candy. It asks the reader if you really want that junk in your system.   Proverbs further warns us that the spreaders of gossip, which is usually slanderous, are fools. I know my goal in life is not to be in the company of fools or to be thought of as a fool. The best way to stop a gossip is to

  Even at jeopardy of being late for an important appointment  I refused to go above the posted  35 miles per hour speed limit.  I may not be as righteous to adhere to posted signs on other roads when I'm in a hurry. However this stretch of the Martin Luther King Highway descending into Renton always got my respect. At least it did, after that day in 1980, when to my chagrin I found myself being stopped by one of our friendly Officers of the Peace, otherwise known as a policemen.  I was completely unaware that I was being followed by a police car as I had my mind on something else.. It wasn't until I noticed the flashing lights that I pulled over. I had been so intent on being on time for a meeting at First Baptist Church that everything else clouded my judgement and the speed limit. When the policeman asked me about my great hurry I explained I didn't want to be late for my meeting at the church. When he came back with my well-deserved ticket  he jovially said, "Ju