I attended a two year community college, where I majored in journalism. As a writer, I found it important to use good grammar. But my grammar usage wasn’t always the best, so my newspaper advisor often corrected me. When he corrected me, I corrected my statement and continued talking. It wasn’t long before I started correcting myself. “Me and Cheree think that…” Pause. “Cheree and I think that…” Then after awhile, I would pause to form a grammatically correct sentence before I started it. By the time I left that college (May, 1977), I spoke with perfect grammar all the time.
In January, 1978, I reported for military active duty and left for basic training. In basic training, I lived in an open bay barracks with 44 other women from all over the country, bringing with them a variety of accents, drawls, and various speech patterns. By the time I graduated from basic training six weeks later, I was saying “y’all” like half the girls in my flight, and little ungrammatical phrases had started to creep back into my language. Now my grammar was so perfect at that time that I immediately caught it. But I didn’t immediately correct it, like I had done in college. I reasoned, “Oh, one little slip is no big deal.” But guess what? One little slip turned into two, and two turned into three, and before I realized it, I was sliding back into poor grammatical speech patterns. I didn’t see it coming, so I made no effort to correct it.
Our Christian life is like that sometimes. When we first start growing in the Lord, we work hard to correct sinful behaviors, to change our language, to maintain godly attitudes, to watch our associations, to be faithful to God…
One time, I heard someone say, “Christians never stand still in their spiritual growth – they are either moving forward or sliding backward.” Just like my grammar skills; it took work to get there. I had to make a conscious effort to maintain good grammar, but I didn’t. And when I no longer worked to move forward in that area, my skills declined.
In your Christian walk, you are either moving forward or your skills are declining. And whether or not you realize it, those around you impact your ability to make good decisions. Surrounded by good grammar models, I was influenced by their examples. It’s vital to your spiritual growth that you surround yourself with godly people because they will influence your decisions and spiritual direction.