June 7, 2016 (Tuesday)
Our English language incorporates a few perplexing features, such as silent letters like the “p” in pneumonia or the “w” in write.
It has words that sound exactly alike but are spelled differently, as “knight” and “night.” Or “road” and “rode.” Then there are those spelled alike, but with different tenses, like “lead” (present) and “lead” (past).
Then there is “gh.” In the word, “through,” it is silent but not in the words “rough” and “tough.”
When I looked up these words and others like them, I discovered there are good reasons for their existence, but they are complicated.
The only way I know to make sure we correctly use these words and the many others like them is memorization, pure and simple.
Examples such as these suggest to me that learning English may be difficult for people who have always spoken another language.
Even if we have mastered all the rules and exceptions to them, we may still have difficulty in understanding some of the messages. For example, a person may say, “I don’t understand certain parts of the Bible.” They understand the English translation of it, but they don’t understand the meaning of its message.
Of course, there is always the matter of interpretation. What is the message of the Bible? What does it mean to me, personally? Different interpretations of the language produce different interpretations of the message. This is why many of us have learned to trust the scholarship of professionals who are able to give us guidance in these technical matters.
I may not be able to understand all the technical specifications of Bible interpretation, but I do need to understand the basic message of the Bible: God loves you and wants you to love Him back. Once you understand that, you will have less difficulty with the technical stuff.
