WE'RE UNDER A SPELL

KEY VERSE:

 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24

 ESSAY:

Why are we a nation of such horabul spelurs? I used to teach college and it amazed and discouraged me how inept my students were at spelling. My students even messed up on simple words like "time", "didn't" and others. 

Working professionals aren’t much better. As an employee I have proofread everything from medical policies to political literature. You would be shocked at how atrocious adults are at spelling. (I was pretty sure I knew how to spell atrocious, but I did ask our Amazon Alexa to confirm the spelling for me.) Even on the computer people don't bother to use spell check. 

I am not a perfect speller, but I will take the time to look a word up in the dictionary if I am not sure of the spelling. It is not hard to memorize how to spell basic words. Unfortunately, with our move toward texting, laziness is making abbreviating and purposely misspelling words to save time more common and more acceptable. I bet if we saw the private writings of our leaders and elected officials we would be appalled at their spelling. But except for the occasional spelling bee champ that we celebrate for 35 seconds once a year on the evening news, spelling has become a lost art that we no longer value. And in the long run I believe that will be a big M-I-S-T-A-K-E.

(If I've spelled anything wrong in this paragraph, I will be humiliated. But don't call me out on it if I did because I'll just say I did it on purpose to see if anyone was paying attention and was a good enough speller to catch it!)

APPLICATION:

            I happen to be a pretty good speller. But there are plenty of things I am not very good at, like math, science and taking photographs. My wife is the picture taker in our family, as evidenced by her photos in this book. The pictures I take always turn out blurry and off-center. Stephanie has tried to teach me some photography tips, but I just have never gotten into it. In Colossians chapter three, the apostle Paul encourages us to do our best in everything we attempt so that we bring glory to God. It wouldn’t hurt me to try and improve my picture taking. With each photograph I take it is an opportunity to honor my Savior. What do you do in your everyday life that could stand some improvement? Maybe it is cooking or cleaning or crafting. Pick out one thing in your life where you would like to improve and pray that God helps you to remember that each time you do it is an opportunity to “work at it with your whole heart, as if working for the Lord.”

This essay is from my book More Autism and Awesometism: Devotionals From and About a Special Needs Family.