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Word Play

We've just enjoyed nine days with one of George's U.K. cousins and her husband.  Because none of us knew the others existed prior to last year, we spent a lot of time telling stories, sharing pictures, and just getting to know one another.

Something we began to realize very early on was our words do not have the same meanings.  We are citizens of different countries and what means one thing in the U.K. means another in the U.S.A..  One such word is piddling.  Did you know that when we say someone is piddling (going slower than necessary), they hear bathroom talk?  I call our evening meal supper.  Hazel calls the evening meal tea.  They go on holiday and we go on vacation.  Their cars have a boot and ours have a trunk.

Anyway, this got me to thinking.  Through faith in Jesus Christ, I'm a citizen of heaven, but I'm living in a foreign land.  How much of what I hear from the LORD's Word is mixed up by where I live and my understanding of that Word?

Most of us have written an e-mail, text, or letter and the recipient misunderstood what we were saying.  Why did that happen?  They were reading it from a different perspective than we were writing it.  Their perspective didn't change what we meant though, right?

Well, that's the deep thought I've been rolling around between myself and the LORD ever since Hazel and Jim visited.  How is my earthly perspective skewing God's Word when I read it?

I'm so thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit and His role as teacher in my life.  I believe He's opened my eyes to the possibilities of seeing and hearing the LORD's Word more clearly and correctly than ever before!  AND, I also believe He is going to help me use that new understanding to live with more freedom and a much better kingdom perspective!!!

Many thanks to the LORD for bringing these new family members into our lives!  And many thanks to our new family members for coming to America.  We had a lovely time getting to know you!!!

LORD, give me the ability to understand what you're saying in your Word and help me unlearn anything that is not right according to you.  Amen.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways," says ADONAI.  Isaiah 55:8 (CJB)

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