I recently received an email from a reader complimenting me on the almost perfect grammar and punctuation in these devotionals day after day. I was appreciative but could not take credit. I have to acknowledge my wife’s careful proofing and two well used style manuals without which these devotionals would be embarrassing displays of ignorance on the part of someone using his native tongue. And yet even with that backup sometimes an error slips in.
Grammar is a tricky thing because it is fluid. As culture moves so moves language. The proper use of something fades into obscurity and is eventually replaced by something newly made proper. Take the “ly” on the word “newly” in the previous sentence. It is becoming rarer for people to put the “ly” on their adverbs. “I want it so bad.” Then there is the use of “me” and “I”. “Me and Tom are going to church.” People claim it is difficult to know how to use this. But if you mentally drop the other person out of the sentence it becomes easy. You wouldn’t say, “Me am going to church.” Then there is the period after the “I” in an above sentence. Should it be inside the quotation marks or outside? My wife isn’t home this evening so I have to rely on a style manual which says the quotation marks should go outside the period like “I.” Somehow that doesn’t look right.
I am so glad salvation isn’t this difficult though I have heard sermons that make it seem so. Jesus wants everyone to understand so He plainly made it plain. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Now that’s easy.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 29, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org