I'm in a women's Bible study and we're going through "Speaking Wisely" by Poppy Smith.  This week's topic was "gossip".  There was a lot of good material, but I think that "gossip" was not the point of the text.

The book of Nehemiah was written in first person - not usual for the Bible.  It's not a very long book, I'd encourage you all to sit down and read it from start to finish.  It was very encouraging at a time when I needed it.

It's not so much about gossip - although those who hated what Nehemiah was doing did use false reports to fight his work.  It's more about standing firm.

A lot of things were brought to mind and I'm going to be posting on it over a few days - right now - it's been a long day and I think I'm going to chill...