I Found God in Punctuation...

*FYI - This will make a lot more sense if you read the post from June 1st - the Email Inspiration about God & Intermission.

I LOVE to read - always have. When I was a little girl, my mom starting paying me $1.00 per novel to read to get me interested. I believe this started around 2nd grade... and by 4th grade, she had to stop because I was depleting her of all her money...!! :) I love how I can get "IN" the book - oblivious to the outside world - lost in a tale of suspense, thrills, mystery, romance, science-fiction, magic, or whatever other genre might be housed between the cover and end-page of a particular book.

I've read some clunkers too. Books with poor plots or characters - Books that have bored me. Books that have disturbed me. But no matter the type of book - the grammar, spelling, and punctuation have got to be on point...!

Consider the period. The END, that's IT, Period. Or the exclamation point: HOORAY! BRAVO! SURPRISE!! The question mark: Wh-at? Who? HOW? And the comma... giving us pause... with the promise of more to come...

The little dot or squiggle in or at the end of a sentence conveys volumes.

Someone once said, "We shouldn't put a period where God has placed a comma..... "

Wh-at?

High School graduation is a good example of this. A lot of Valedictorian speeches includes references to the END of an era or the BEGINNING of our lives... a form of period. But graduation is more like a comma... a pause... a transition. Not a grand finale.

Same with hardship. Sometimes we have catastrophic, awful, heartbreaking things happen to us. Things that make us sure that our life is over... Period. But God may have just placed a comma in the story of your life... not that period. God may gearing up to use that hardship for something wonderful... just you wait and see. The story of your life is not over... so don't put a period where God has placed a comma. :)

"In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:4-6 NIV).