Two helpful four-letter words
By Charles Christian
Like many people, I was raised to avoid certain “four-letter words.” I will certainly not list those words here, since they are so well-known.
However, there are at least two four-letter words that we should not avoid, yet too often we do. The first word is “help.” It is hard for many of us to ask for help.
Yet we were created to be our best in the community. Being part of a community means having access to people who can assist us as we grow in our faith and other areas of life. Refusing to ask for help may seem like strength.
However, trying to live without the humility to ask for help sets us up for the heartache of always learning lessons the hard way. Some of those hard lessons can be fatal. Fortunately, God consistently offers us the assistance we need, which can help us grow and prepare us to give help to others. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Come unto me all of you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
The second four-letter word is “love.”
We all need love, and we all like to be loved. However, too often we forget to say it. Feeling love is important, and there are many ways to express love. A well-known book speaks of five “love languages” that include affirming words, quality time, physical touch, acts of service and receiving gifts.
All of these are valid expressions of love. According to experts, most people have two key expressions they respond to most deeply. The simple process of discovering the two key love languages of someone else is itself an act of love.
Even those who didn’t grow up with consistent expressions of love can still demonstrate it to others. Love is one of the few gifts that seems to multiply back to us when we give it away. The Bible says succinctly that “God is love.” This means that a key characteristic that helps us to define what God is about is this wonderful and often under-used four-letter word: love.
Maybe it’s time to cut down on the negative four-letter words while making room for the two best and most important four-letter words, “help” and “love.”
