Being Teachable

This month, I’m sharing writing tips to help with our moments of proofreading. These writing tips will help us make appropriate changes so we can create a more understandable message. Receiving correction is something everyone does sooner or later. The movies I’ll review this month have characters who must accept correction before they can have a happy ending.

I know there are a lot of people out there who are doing a lot of instant messaging, texting, emailing, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc – and are not interested in checking for and correcting spelling errors. I understand texting and Tweeting with abbreviated versions of words because of limited space or time. However, longer messages like emails and Facebook posts can be more easily understood if the author of the message would do a simple proofread before sending.

We all know that everyone makes mistakes. I’ve made plenty of them. And since I don’t want to lose friends and annoy people in general, I’ve decided to not correct anyone’s spelling in those social media communities. But, really, don’t you get tired of seeing, “Your nice to!”

It’s actually pretty easy to change our spelling, punctuation, grammar, and word choice habits. But what’s more important is the message. In 1 Corinthians 13:1, we read, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” If people don’t understand the message because of poor proofreading, that can be fixed quickly. But if people read an error-free message and find it meaningless, we should start over and find something important to say before trying to be heard.

On my devotional blog, Seek God With Me, I’m spending a little time on choosing worthy words. Join me there and seek God with me today.

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