Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week daily devotional where we share the word, prayers, and our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

Well, we're going to finish up this week's look at friendship, and I hope it's been helpful for you.

I know it's been something to me. Today I want to talk about something not just related to friendship, but it's certainly something that will kill a friendship

fast, and it's something I think we need to pay attention to and caution against because of how

destructive it is in nature. Think you know what it is?

Gossip is the topic today, and before you claim it's not an issue for you and you your female friends don't just think about whether or not the two of you gossip about each

other but consider about how much of your friendship is spent talking about other

people I'll just go on and tell you that I've had

friendships in the past that as I've taken a hard look back at them, I can see where our friendship

was basically built on talking about other people. It pains me to say this. I'm ashamed of it,

but it's true. We had a friendship maybe that was based on having conversations about others,

who was doing what, and did you know this, and every time without fail, not only did I leave

those kinds of friendships feeling completely gross, but the friendships never lasted. One of us

always ended up walking away from the friendship forever. Maybe we didn't say that it was because

of gossip, but for whatever reason, the friendship just fizzled. Because when you allow gossip into a

friendship, you lose trust for the person you engage in gossip with 100% of the time. There's, of course,

lots in the Bible about this. The book of James is a powerful

source about taming our tongue and comparing gossip to a fire that spreads and is uncontrollable.

We all know the damage it can cause, and we've all been on the receiving end of gossip,

and know how deeply it hurts. When it comes to friendships, I think the thing we need to ask

ourselves is this. do I want this

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