Several years ago my dear friends Ashley and Sarah Miller bought Clay a “Word-of-the-Day” Calendar for Christmas. It was full of 365 astonishingly ridiculous words to improve his vocabulary such as: Ubiquitous, Sagacious, Flummox, Crapulous (yes it really is a word), and Vicissitude.
We still have that calendar. It’s on a bookshelf behind some things, and periodically we run across it and read a few words and giggle at how silly they sound. Thank you, Millers, for years of entertainment (literally).
I have what most would call an extensive vocabulary, and perhaps a weird obsession with words. If you’ve met my dad you understand why. I love words and the depth of communication they can convey when you understand their multi-faceted meaning.
One of my favorite words is Faithful. Many people take this word for granted. I did for a long time. If you ask someone for the definition you will most likely get “Faithful means they don’t cheat” (which is a sad commentary on our culture, but that is another soapbox for another blog and another day). If you ask Webster you will find that Faithful means:
· steadfast in affection or allegiance : loyal
· firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty : conscientious
· given with strong assurance : binding
· true to the facts, to a standard, or to an original
I’ve come to love this word. I love that every day my husband says to me “I was faithful to you today, because I love you” assuring me that he is loyal to me in his words, thoughts and actions. I am encouraged to be faithful to my family, friends, and coworkers by being conscientious and observant to fulfill the promises and responsibilities I hold in my relationships with them because they count on me to do so. I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father is faithful in His promises and that I can trust they are true and binding, because He is the original, He sets the standard and he is Immutable (this is another big word meaning incapable of change) I can always trust His promises because He never wavers.
Lately I’ve had a few minutes, hours and days where I got caught up in worry; mostly about finances, because things are really tight right now. But I am reminded so often that God is Faithful. His faithfulness shows up in some obvious ways such as the check that arrives the same day as an unexpected expense; but He also shows His faithfulness in the simple fact that we are still here. We live a life that is so blessed, surrounded by love and grace that we don’t deserve. We deserve to be consumed with the guilt of our sin and the ugliness of the things we choose to love more than God but instead we get soooo much! We get to experience love, security, surprise, exhilaration and even cachinnation.
“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
P.S. – You get 10 cool points if you stopped reading to look up any of the words in today’s blog. J
