Category: Word Prompts

Hard Pills to Swallow

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

Some pills are really hard to swallow. They’re too big to go down easily. For me, the anticipation of how hard it will be to swallow a big pill makes it even harder to get it down. I anticipate it getting stuck. I expect that I might gag. I try not to taste it, but I know that if it doesn’t go down the first time, it is going to taste gross. I tense up. My throat constricts. And when I do manage to relax enough get it down, I sometimes have the feeling that the pill is stuck in my throat.

I read a definition that said that the idiom “a hard (or bitter) pill to swallow” means something that is hard to believe. For example, you might say that it is hard to swallow the excuses of a person who is untrustworthy. But I think that when we say that something is hard to swallow, it means that a truth is difficult but necessary to accept. You don’t want to accept the truth but you have to accept the truth just as you have to swallow a big pill for your own good.

Some truths are really hard to accept. They’re too big to go down easily. We resist accepting hard truths because they grate against what we want to believe. We resist tasting them and we resist feeling them because it’s unpleasant and we’re afraid we might gag. But the truth has to be accepted to do any good.

 

via Daily Prompt: Swallow

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No Longer Foreigners

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

I don’t like the way many people in my country treat foreigners. The president wants to build a wall to keep people south of the border from entering this country. He and others unfairly accuse immigrants of being murderers and rapists, when in fact, most are good people. In America, almost all of us are descendants of immigrants. Immigrants are a valuable part of our labor force.

Exodus 22:9 says, “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.” Psalm 146:9 says, “The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”

I was once a foreigner. I am a Gentile by birth but I was adopted into God’s family. He destroyed the dividing walls. He welcomed me in. I am no longer a foreigner but a fellow citizen with God’s people (Ephesians 2:19).

This is my father’s world
Oh, let me never forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet

via Daily Prompt: Foreign

Facts are stubborn things

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

Facts matter. No matter how much you don’t like the facts, you can’t replace them with “alternative facts.” You can’t wish them away. If it makes you feel better to ignore the facts, you can bury your head in the sand, but the facts will still be there.

Proverbs 12:19 says that truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed.

Jesus said that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be known and illuminated (Luke 8:17).

Bring on the light.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. – John Adams

via Daily Prompt: Fact

Social Fabric

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word fabric is the material used to make clothes or linens or other woven items. This kind of fabric is so much a part of daily life, I don’t give it much thought unless it is difficult to care for. But when combined with the word social, the word fabric becomes abstract and hard to define.

In its definition of social fabric, Business Dictionary lists a bunch of components that make up the “composite demographics” of an area – things like race, wealth, education level and regional values. This definition leaves me cold. You don’t weave a cohesive piece of anything with demographic statistics.

A company that uses Social Fabric as a name defines it in a way that makes more sense to me. It says that Social fabric is the glue that holds a society together. The glue is shared bonds that make it possible to “form a culturally rich and socially cohesive community.”

I see social fabric as people who are united by common values or purposes. The individual threads that make up the fabric can be quite different from each other. Some are quite colorful. Some are smooth, while others have a lot of texture. Some are more durable than others. But if the various threads agree on their mission and values, they can be woven into a cohesive whole.

Photo Credit – Engin Akyurt via Pixabay

via WordPress Daily Prompt: Fabric

Quietly Congregating

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

I’m not the kind of person who likes to congregate. Crowds are not my thing. If I know there will be a crowd where I’m going, I’ll wait until it is less busy.

I am not comfortable around strangers. I don’t know what to talk to them about. I don’t like it when people are loud. I don’t like it when one person dominates the conversation or when too many people talk at once. Too many people = too much stimulation.

You can’t avoid congregating when you are a member of a congregation, a group of people who gather to worship God. My church is too big for me to feel completely comfortable. So when I go to church, I stake out my space at the edge of the room where I can sit quietly and watch from a distance.

via Daily WordPress Prompt: Congregate