Oh, we’re all guilty of them, those proverbial OMG’s and LOL’s in our online chit-chats and Facebook threads!!! The question is, are we understanding the full impact of these linguistic fig leaves or do we just fall off the cliff with the other lemmings?!?
I was recently caught red-handed, felt humiliated, got mad, then got over it and realized…. MOM IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!! (Ok, almost always) So, in my humiliation, a few scriptures came to mind. (I just love when the Lord takes Mom’s side!!!)
1 Thessalonians 5:22
Avoid every kind of evil.
In another translation is says to avoid even the APPEARANCE of evil! Well, there you go folks!!! I was stumped and had no reply, which is hard for me, since I do like to put in my 2 cents! Who can argue with the Word of God? Surely not I!
Another thing to consider is our audience. We often don’t even realize how greatly we can affect those around us as we go about our daily duties. Being involved in a wonderful church family and singing in the choir, I have discovered that people I may have never met will recognize me in the mall, at the supermarket and yes, even the local pizza joint! It is a still bit jolting every time someone greets me saying “Hey, don’t you sing at my church?” Not that I have anything to hide, it just reminds me that as worship leaders we have been given such a great opportunity to influence people to Christ-like living. I would never want that to be compromised for a silly little lyrical lapse on Plurk.com!!!
Of course, I’m not banishing the safe LOL’s, ROFL’s and TTYL’s, I am simply “avoiding the appearance of evil” and not using those which represent (or have in the past represented) a curse word. As we all know, when someone uses the acronym WTF, the reader is NOT thinking “Wow That’s Fantastic!” How foolish we would be!
I’m sure I’ve made you nervous now, therefore, I do wish to bring to your attention some of the safe acronyms to use online:
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
ROFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing
BBQ = Delicious Chicken and/or Ribs
L8R = Later
TTYL = Talk To You Later
FTW = For The Win (when you triumph over someone at a game leaving them totally and utterly defeated)
FTL = For The Lose or For The Loss (when you are the one that was defeated triumphantly)
RG = Reaction Getter??? Note: This is not a recognized acronym in any circle of the World Wide Web….Mom!
There is also Leet Speak, which you’ll have to ask Phillip about…cuz he’s teh 1337 h4ck3r!!! But that’s a whole other language and a whole other blog!!!
Proverbs 16:17
The highway of the upright avoids evil; he who guards his way guards his life.
Let us take the ‘highway’ and maybe we can pull some other lemmings to safety on our journey.
~JACI
Great blog, Jacs! If we are the light of the world, we should shine in every aspect of our lives. It’s called taking the high road, the one that is narrow and doesn’t have many folks on it. The easy, wide road is compromise and oh, so much easier to live out. But then we are like everybody else and our light is dimmed to a dull bulb hidden under layers of the grit and grime of what the media and others feed us. ~I love you and am proud of you.
Bev
August 28th, 2008