Build UP: Defeating Words

James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

I hope I haven't told this story too recently! When I was a freshman at a Big 10 university, one of my first compositions in English class was returned to me with an awful grade. If the grade wasn't bad enough, the words the instructor scrawled on the page finished the job. What I remember is that I was told that "I could not write". I eventually dropped the course.

Those words echoed in my ears for over five years! I registered for many freshman English courses and at three different schools, but those words would always haunt me. I was struggling to even finish the remedial classes.

It was the 10th or 11th English class that made the difference. Nancy Krey was my instructor. She took me aside a few weeks into the course and talked to me about my writing. She said, "You write quite well." At that point I believe my draw literally dropped open. She went on to say, "You just need some work on the structure of your sentences."

Two years later while in graduate school, my professors regularly told me, "You need to get some of your work published, because you write so well."

"...because you write so well." Thank you Nancy!

Those words from that first instructor almost scuttled my entire college education.

Mind your words!
Lon