Tell It Like It Is

My three year old granddaughter had her first dentist appointment the other day. The day before, she went with her daddy so she could see just how much fun it was for him. When her turn came, they showed her the big comfy recliner and the pretty, shiny instruments. This would be a great play date! She didn’t think so. This was no tea party, and she knew it. Without going into details, I will say this much. While two people were holding her down, she tried to bite the dentist. Way to go, Anne!! She knew all along that something smelled fishy. She stuck up for what she felt to be wrong, and she won. At least this time. They sent her home, to come back and try in another six months. My granddaughter is no wimp to be pacified by pretty words. But some people are. Pretty words bother me a lot. And they should bother you, too. Politicians, salesmen, and other people are changing the names of things that are wrong in order to make them acceptable or politically correct. You’ve heard the term to “make a sow’s ear into a silk purse”. Well, I prefer the other saying “Let’s call a spade, a spade.” Take car salesmen. They are now calling used cars “previously owned”. Perhaps we should think something like this: “I never buy used cars, but this is only previously owned. What a difference. Maybe the owner never used it! I’ll buy two.” As if! Then there’s torture. Politicians are now calling it “enhanced interrogation.” This way, we won’t be concerned about it. Nothing wrong here! Just some forceful questioning. Everyone go back to what you were doing and let them handle it. But it doesn’t matter what you call it, it is what it is. Jesus did get angry at times, but can you imagine him being involved in something like this? In any stretch of your imagination? Some really ugly things can be disguised in very pretty packages. Matthew 23:27 says “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones….on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” So, what’s in a word? Apparently not much these days.