Baseball players and coaches spend lots of time together. Baseball is like that. Practice can last for hours, much longer than basketball or football with their intense physical exertion. Since baseball is played at a different pace, both practices and games take longer and give more opportunity for players and coaches to be together for long periods of time.

Inevitably, some on the team and staff will get a long great, and others will not. Personality differences, attitudes, past experiences, combined with all that time together makes baseball teams more like a family or a set of neighbors than anything else. Just like families and neighbors, we know a lot about each other. That knowledge brings responsibility.

Proverbs 26:9-10 puts it this way: “Argue your case with your neighbor, and do not reveal the secret of another, lest he who hears it reproach you, and the evil report about you not pass away.”

Because we know a lot about each other, we can use that information against one another. We can easily give in to the temptation to air our grievances about everyone to everyone.

Instead, these verses give us different instruction.

If I have a problem with someone, I am to address it with them. Personally. Privately.

If I know the secrets and problems of others, that’s not for public consumption. Ever.

If I want to be trusted and have a good reputation, let me start by protecting the information and reputations of my teammates and coaches.

If I lose the trust of those closest to me, it’s difficult to earn it back.

Consider well the responsibility given to players and coaches who spend lots of time together and thus know lots about each other, both the good and the bad. We are accountable to each other and to the Lord for what we say about one another.

Lord Jesus, help me to speak well of those in our program or organization, or to say nothing at all. Amen.