Galatians 6
1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted
2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

This scripture woke me up this morning. When our natural body is wounded, the whole body goes to work restoring and healing the wounded part. We do not seperate it and cut it off from the rest of the body, but our whole system goes to work and surrounds and protects the wounded part and the healing process happens.
We are the body of Christ. When we see the our brother or sister is taken in a fault or is wounded in some way, we must do the same. We cannot afford to critize and cut off the member, but we must rally around them with support and resources. We must love them and surround them, never gossipping about them, thus cutting them off from the love and support they so desperately need, but ministering TO them.
I feel this strongly this early mornig.
God has awakened me several times this week with thoughts about our realationship with each other, about true friendship and true love. I have been convicted for myself and heavily burdened for people I dearly love.
We don't want to create a culture of gossip for ourselves and our family and friends.
It causes us to walk the low road where we create shallow relationships. Ones that lack loyalty, trust and support. There can be no trust, no feelings of safety, no love. It binds us with low self esteem and depression and isolates us.
We need to get off of this road and start creating a circle of love and support for each other. We need to become the kind of friend we want others to be to us. We need to show the kind of love that can listen and empathize, but then go on to give sound, Godly advise. We don't want to use our friendships to vent, but to share our struggles, not to find someone to sympathise with us and make us feel better about what we are doing, what we are tempted with, or how we are feeling ( especially when it involves others), but to honestly be looking for sound advice that will help us be overcomers. We want to be the kind of friend that will help our friends overcome instead of helping them wallow in anger, hurt, jelousy, etc. This just leads to gossip fests and a downward spiral. Be the kind of friend that is trustworhty, the kind that people feel confident that thier business stays confidential at all times, the kind of friend that will tell it like it is when your thinking is off course or your emotions are out of control, ( in kindness of course), that will pray and encourage and love. Don't be the kind that will try and pull down to your level. Let's build a strong foundation of love, safety, loyalty and trust for our brothers and sisters. Let's show our girls how to be Godly women not ugly, gossipy, bitter, nasty young girls. This is the will of God and if we obey His word, then our lives will be blessed and enriched. If we become this kind of woman we will attract others of like mindedness. We will grow in grace and Godliness. Let's walk the high road.

PS Just a side note: The more we can get our minds focused outside ourselves and on helping others, the happier we will be. Self absorption is misery. Don't live your life where everything you do is to gratify something in yourself. Sometimes even the good things we do is self gratifying because it makes us feel good about ourselves. That is fine to a degree, but it is best and much more enriching to make pleasing God and loving others our goal and the rest will fall into place. Just a thought.

I know this is kind of a jumble, but it is early and I wanted to get some of my thoughts down before I got up and started the day and forgot about what I was feeling. I hope this can be a blessing and an encouragement to someone.
I have lots of other thing rambling around in this head, but it will have to be another post. I've been thinking to do a series of post about what it means to be a christian. Maybe I will, and this could be the first in the series. (Don't gaossip, be true. Search for truth not a rason to justify your actions and feelings)