Parents tire of tattling children, and children use peer pressure to stop each other from tattling. But there is nothing inherently wrong with reporting wrongdoing—particularly reporting FUTURE wrongdoing so it can be prevented.
Those who would stop you from tattling often begin by challenging your LOYALTY. If you tell, then you are not one of us. Different situations require different results, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of whether you should tattle.
But after safety (are lives or serious injury at risk?) and integrity (is there a simple right or wrong answer?), the question is often one of LOYALTY. Where do your loyalties lie?
I once informed a professor about students cheating during her exam. I was one of her students—but by then I had taught school long enough that my loyalties were with the teacher—whom I considered a colleague of sorts. (A naïve colleague, it turns out, who cried when she heard what was going on.)
When Mordecai heard two men conspiring to kill the king, he reported it and saved the king’s life. Initially, the matter was forgotten. But when the king discovered the record of Mordecai’s good deed, he honored him beyond anything Mordecai could have imagined, eventually elevating him to second-in-command of all Persia. More importantly, God used Mordecai’s “tattling” and it became a key step in the rescue of the thousands of Jews living in Persia who were about to be put to death by Haman.
“Mordecai went from the king’s presence clothed in royal purple and white, with a great gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen…. Mordecai was second only to King Ahasuerus, famous among the Jews and highly popular with many of his relatives” Esther 8:15; 10:3.
God, give us the courage to “tattle” if needed. Help us be loyal to the RIGHT people, to honor You and do what is right, no matter what it might cost us among our peers.
ΑΩ
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