Wite-out and forgiveness

Have you ever said something you wish you could take back?

I do that all the time.

As much as I try to put a governor on my words, I still say things I wish I could pull back, throw in a waste can and never hear again.

In some cases, wouldn't you like to just start over?

Let me give you some words from John Ortberg that visualize what I am saying.

Ortberg writes:  "Back in the days when everyone used typewriters there was a little thing called Wite-Out. Wite-Out dates to 1966 when an insurance-company clerk named George Kloosterhouse teamed with a guy who waterproofed basements to develop their own correction fluid. They originally called it "Wite-Out WO-1 Erasing Liquid."

You can still buy the product. Wite-Out isn't perfect. If you made a mistake on the typewriter, you'd have to take the paper out or get it raised up a little bit and then dab it with the Wite-Out, paint over the mistake, and then blow on it and let it dry. Then you could type right over it as if the mistake had never been made.

When electric typewriters came along, some genius invented something even better than Wite-Out—the self-correcting typewriter. Now wouldn't it be great if someday down the road somebody invented self-correcting people? Wouldn't it be cool if there could be a self-correcting husband or wife who would say the wrong thing and then just back up and say it over again right? "You know, you're just like your mother. Oops! Let's just erase that and start over." Wouldn't it be great if every spouse or friend or parent or child came with self-correcting technology?"

Good words.

Important words.

But you and I know that the human race is not self-correcting.

In fact, when left to our own devices - we will always self-destruct.  We will always act in the flesh.

Remember what I have said a couple of times in my teachings:  Expect people to act in the flesh - and when they act in the spirit, rejoice!

That being said, in His grace, God gives us one of the most amazing inventions there is when we say something stupid.

Forgiveness.

Forgiveness (to use this analogy) if far more powerful than Wite-Out.

God wipes the slate clean - and if God does that, how much more should you and I.

Just a thought for a Thursday.