Don’t say lashon harah don’t, even if you want to then you won’t

But unfortunately, we DO. We are taught to watch our words but do we? Most of us say things we shouldn’t at least once a day. Sometimes it can have severe repercussions.

It was the classic case of sending a text to the wrong person by accident. Not a big deal, it happens to all of us at some point. But what if the text that was sent was about the person who it was accidentally sent to? It wasn’t so negative, but it had connotations that wouldn’t be mistaken as anything else.

I felt really bad and stupid, but I couldn’t take it back.

What is that, you say? Normal friends would understand that people make mistakes, and that some things were intended differently than they sound? But when something is already in a rough place, some things can tip it in the wrong way.

A setback. What will happen now? I don’t know. I guess time will tell. I made a mistake, not by sending the text to the wrong person, but by sending it at all. I shouldn’t have said what I did, and the worst part about it is that as I was sending it I was thinking I shouldn’t be saying this, it’s wrong. But I did it anyway. I guess I learned my lesson.

In contrast, I called the wrong person yesterday. But it was a simple hi sorry wrong number bye. So why the difference? Well for one thing, there was nothing negative about it. And additionally, if a friendship is stable and standing on firm ground it can withstand anything.

This is not just about friendship. This is about taking responsibility for your actions and being able to say, I was wrong. This is about listening to your yetzer tov over your yetzer harah. This is about trusting your instincts when they tell you not to listen to someone and to do the right thing instead. This is about trusting yourself and making the right choice when it seems like everyone else thinks differently.

I hate messy situations. I would think most people do. Sometimes I just want to walk away and not deal with it, even if I’m the one who got myself into it. But one must take responsibility for ones actions.

And so I will stay and try to do the right thing, and possibly save a friendship in the process.
Checking out- I’m going to the country for Shabbos, so I’d like to wish everyone a great one. And please remember in general, and especially in these days right before Tisha Ba’av, to watch your words carefully, and to not say anything that might hurt someone.