I seemed to have been given an appreciation of "words" from my young adulthood. They always fascinated me, the origins, etc. How the original word could change over years, etc. Maybe that's why, when I did become a believer, I became one who just dug into the Word. I'd read a lot of other Christian books about theology, etc. I got a good mix of a bunch of different viewpoints for sure.
Which I'm VERY grateful for. I guess when you see all perspectives of an issue (be it something spiritual or something so simple as a voter's pamphlet) it can be at first very confusing. To me, both sides sounded valid and I feared I would never figure out what the truth was. So years later I find myself at BT and seeing how everything is coming together, everything has built on all the things I've read in my life. Its all very exciting..but I digress (I do that often)
Being a lover of words in general, you would think I'd know better than to use words at times when verbally speaking would have been a better option
I've gotten misunderstood so often with emails to my kids if I was upset about something, etc. No matter how hard I tried to be loving and cover what I felt about the issue, most times it wasn't taken that way. It only took me several years to figure out that emails were NOT the best way to handle family disputes
thankfully, my family survived.
But I guess I just wanted to say, and I'm sure everyone has experienced this, that a lot of times the written word can be taken the wrong way. You can take a sentence and read it several different ways. I'd love to think of a good example right now but nothing is coming to mind.
I think its important to remember the wonderful fellowship here and to try to not take things too personally. I guess to hopefully discern, by God's grace, what the message is and how it is given. I hope when I'm ready to start diving in with things that I'll have that quality, that I won't get hurt by something written (hehe I probably will though), but that I'll get over it quickly
reminding myself that you are all brothers and sisters in Christ!
This isn't like other fellowships that I've visited, where certain words that were voiced or written, were like a knives stabbing me in the heart. I feel safe here and I just wanted to thank everyone for that feeling of safety
Love,
Dawn