Using Bywords...

 Are you looking forward to 2021?

Can you believe it is upon us?

All the things we hoped would be over by now like Covid, masks, quarantining, and Presidential confusion, are still going strong. Would we be different people if life were back to ‘normal’?

Were we really different people before 2020? I like to think so… I like to think we were kinder, more friendly, more trusting, more relational, but I am not sure that is entirely true. I think hard times tends to bring out what we really are. Hard times tends to reveal who we are deep inside ourselves.

If we are generous, then we are still helping others even when times are rough.

If we are polite, then we will not be attacking others for holding beliefs different from our own.

If we are loving, then we will have compassion on the hurting rather than being ready to strike back when they hurt us.

This concept is true for us in every area of our lives! We are either filled with God’s way or the world’s way. The most glaringly obvious one to me is what we say when we are ‘frustrated’.

Do we let forth a string of four-letter words?

Do we just try to act more polite and instead post characters ##@**! so that others can fill in the blanks?

Are these words even wrong?

In today’s society it seems they are commonly acceptable. I hear many professing Christian woman say things that even men would have never said…at least not in a lady’s presence just one generation ago.

And really, just why do we insert crude language? Usually, it is to call out another person; to put them in their place. However, we cannot praise GOD and curse people…. We cannot be filled with refreshing words and bitter words. One or the other will take over; scripture tells us we cannot have it both ways.

James 3:9-12

“9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and saltwater flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.?”

Obviously, the answer is no; both cannot flow from the same spring. Scripture calls these commonly inserted words ‘bywords’. Dictionary.com defines a byword as: “an object of general reproach, derision, scorn, etc.”

Job 17:6

“But He has made me a byword of the people,

And I am one at whom men spit.”

Job 30:9

“And now I have become their taunt,

I have even become a byword to them.”

Deuteronomy 28:37

“You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you.”

Psalms 44:14

“Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.”

Jeremiah 24:9

“I'll make them into a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth; into a cause for contempt, into a byword, into a taunt, and into a curse in all the places to which I drive them.”

None of these scriptures use a byword as a POSITIVE thing. Nobody WANTS to be a byword. Now it does not say they are sin to use, but rather that if we are filled with these negative words and thoughts, then how can we be filled with God’s word? Do you choose to be a negative or a positive person?

***The exception to a byword that IS SIN would be using the Lord God’s name as a byword or a curse. God is very clear that his name is not to be used wrongly.

Exodus 20:7 " "𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙊𝙍𝘿 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙂𝙤𝙙, 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙊𝙍𝘿 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙥𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙙.”

I hope that is food for thought as we enter the new year, leaving behind the old, improving our lives, and seeking to Glorify God in everything we do.

On a side note, I had an opportunity to choose how I should respond today when Little Man lost his mud boot in the driveway. He picked it up and walked all the way to the house…through more mud…carrying that boot! I almost spoke harshly saying “Why did you not put your boot back on? Those are your new socks!” However, I felt a prompting to be quiet and let him tell me what happened. He said, “My boot stuck in the mud and flew OFF my foot! I didn’t want to put my muddy sock inside my new boot.” He was thinking and reasoning that it would be much better to have a muddy sock than a boot filled with mud. I agree wholeheartedly!! Good call Little Man!!

When you are tracking mud, consider where it will end up and choose wisely.