Technology is such a mixed blessing and I am usually out of the mix. The following is about a discovery that was right at my fingertips but took me months to find. It is from May 16, 2006.
I am beginning to have a problem. I faithfully write five of these devotionals per week and the total number of entries is adding up. My dilemma is remembering which illustrations I have used. I teach by telling stories and as time elapses in a school year, I can't recall which ones I have told to which class. Yesterday, my article here concerned one of my students, Hana Bae, and the golfer, Michelle Wie. Something told me I had already used their resemblance in an entry but I wasn't sure. I tried to scan my past blogs but they are, in aggregate, roughly the length of several books. I plunged ahead but worried that my story might be similar to one already written. To my amazement, I have discovered the answer to my redundancy issue! I have found a little device on my control panel for blogspot that searches all my entries for me. It is sort of like Google for my blog! I can type in any word/words and find out if that term has previously been mentioned in any of my writings. For example, I search for Westbury Christian, and find my school has been mentioned in sixty-nine entries, including this one. It also informs me of the date of each usage. I have a new weapon in my battle with my memory...and it was always right there at my fingertips. (I searched for Michelle Wie today- no previous referrals. It was a fresh reference!)
Wouldn't it be great to have one of those little devices for our speech? What did I say? When did I say it and who heard me? In what context did I say those words? Do you ever try to recreate your conversations, backtracking to make sure you haven't dug a deep hole for yourself? We all have because we talk too much. We know what James 3 says about not being able to tame the tongue. Those with the best chance of getting their words under subjection are those who don't need a little device like I find on my blogspot control panel. The great thing about a blog is that if I look back and find some words I don't like in retrospect, I can push the backspace button and they disappear forever. No one is the wiser but me. It doesn't work that was with our voices, does it? Our words tend to hang around like nuclear waste, like a schoolgirl's note to her best friend in fifth grade. They don't dissipate with the passage of a little bit of time. Search buttons won't be coming onto the market any time soon to correct our obsession with talking too much but there is a helpful remedy for all of us that is readily available: Be Quiet.
Applicable quote of the day:
"It was impossible to get a conversation going. Everyone was talking too much."
Yogi Berra/ New York Yankees
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
I am beginning to have a problem. I faithfully write five of these devotionals per week and the total number of entries is adding up. My dilemma is remembering which illustrations I have used. I teach by telling stories and as time elapses in a school year, I can't recall which ones I have told to which class. Yesterday, my article here concerned one of my students, Hana Bae, and the golfer, Michelle Wie. Something told me I had already used their resemblance in an entry but I wasn't sure. I tried to scan my past blogs but they are, in aggregate, roughly the length of several books. I plunged ahead but worried that my story might be similar to one already written. To my amazement, I have discovered the answer to my redundancy issue! I have found a little device on my control panel for blogspot that searches all my entries for me. It is sort of like Google for my blog! I can type in any word/words and find out if that term has previously been mentioned in any of my writings. For example, I search for Westbury Christian, and find my school has been mentioned in sixty-nine entries, including this one. It also informs me of the date of each usage. I have a new weapon in my battle with my memory...and it was always right there at my fingertips. (I searched for Michelle Wie today- no previous referrals. It was a fresh reference!)
Wouldn't it be great to have one of those little devices for our speech? What did I say? When did I say it and who heard me? In what context did I say those words? Do you ever try to recreate your conversations, backtracking to make sure you haven't dug a deep hole for yourself? We all have because we talk too much. We know what James 3 says about not being able to tame the tongue. Those with the best chance of getting their words under subjection are those who don't need a little device like I find on my blogspot control panel. The great thing about a blog is that if I look back and find some words I don't like in retrospect, I can push the backspace button and they disappear forever. No one is the wiser but me. It doesn't work that was with our voices, does it? Our words tend to hang around like nuclear waste, like a schoolgirl's note to her best friend in fifth grade. They don't dissipate with the passage of a little bit of time. Search buttons won't be coming onto the market any time soon to correct our obsession with talking too much but there is a helpful remedy for all of us that is readily available: Be Quiet.
Applicable quote of the day:
"It was impossible to get a conversation going. Everyone was talking too much."
Yogi Berra/ New York Yankees
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
1 comment:
Great post Steve! I was just thinking about the number of posts you have written over the years and how you have them catalogued...Your blog is amazing!
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