What the —?!?

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A merry heart does good, like medicine.    – Proverbs 17:22

Have you ever seen those sentences where every word is misspelled, but you can still read it? Apparently it’s because the spellings are so close to correct that your mind subconsciously fills in the blanks and rearranges the letters to make sense of it. I think I may have done that with my blog title. Maybe others have been reading it that way, too.

Either that or my readers have been snickering at me for the past year.

It came to my attention when a fellow blogger wanted to re-post my latest piece. I was delighted. Then he asked if I wanted the title of my blog to be “Seeking Divine Perspective” or “Perpsective.” Even then I didn’t see the error, I just thought he was shortening the title. When I finally saw the typo, I freaked.

It was late at night, and I had been traveling and was behind on my emails. I had planned to get through the 180+ emails as quickly as possible and get to bed, but now I was stressing out about this major embarrassment. (I know, I was blowing it way out of proportion, but I’m a retired, perfectionist English teacher, for heaven’s sake.) Being technologically challenged, I had to ask for help and didn’t know how long it would take Word Press to respond, and I wanted it fixed NOW. (Actually, I wanted it fixed last year.)

Meanwhile, I showed the blog to my husband Marty, and he didn’t see anything wrong with it at first, until I told him what word was wrong, and he took a closer look. I hoped it was one of those things people looked at and saw what it was supposed to say. Oh well, it’s been there for over a year, I can wait another day to fix it. 

Suddenly it occurred to me how ironically appropriate it was for this “crisis” to come up after I posted “The Big Cover-up” – the story about garbage that was lurking under the snow in my yard, until a thaw uncovered it all, right before an event I was hosting. And here I was, dealing with a blunder that had been right under my nose all these months. Same feeling, same panic to get it fixed.

While I waited for help to arrive in my inbox, I read some other bloggers’ posts. I read one about how the devil will attack a person’s confidence in the area where God is using him/her. I have recently come to the conclusion that writing is a big part of my calling, and the fact that my blog can go anywhere in the world the Lord wants it to go has been hugely exciting to me. So, it makes sense that I would be attacked in this area by something this silly, this late at night. That realization made me smile and calm down a little. And in that blogger’s comments I shared my experience as a prime example.

Another post was about gratitude, how we tend to complain about the quality of the food we have, while other people are starving, etc. (“I complained because I had no shoes, until I saw a man with no feet.”)

I couldn’t resist: “I was stressed because my title had a typo, until I realized some people could never spell ‘perspective’ in the first place.” I then sat and laughed away any residual stress. I’m pretty sure God was laughing with me. (I love that feeling.)

I’ve picked up some followers in the past couple of days. I never know how my followers originally find my blog, but I can’t help wondering if this time one or more of them might have seen my comments and checked out my blog to see what this glaring blunder was. Who knows? I just know that what started as a blow to my perfectionist ego turned into a beautiful example of God’s sense of humor, not to mention His ability to drive home a point that I had just made days before but had already forgotten.

In fact, I’ve been having so much fun with this, I still haven’t corrected it, although I now know how to. One of these days I will, so check it out now. And if you are so inclined, show it to someone else and just see if they spot the mistake on that page.

(Just curious.)

Prayer: Lord, we can take ourselves so seriously! And so often we don’t take You seriously enough. Forgive us, and help us to get a better perspective, Your perspective – the “divine perspective.” If we aren’t good at laughing at ourselves, teach us this happy skill, that Your joy may be our strength, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Published by seekingdivineperspective

I am a forgiven sinner and adopted child of God, seeking to see life from His perspective - as opposed to the world's flawed perspective - and living my life accordingly.

Published

35 thoughts on “What the —?!?”

  6. Ann, thank you for sharing a lesson learned. We are usually the ones who notice our own mistakes, even when others do not. The Lord has a way of diverting our attention from other’s mistakes. This is one of His blessings for us. Content means everything. Blessings as you continue to share His blessings with us. 🙂

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  7. I know noticed it until I read the guys comments yesterday when he pointed it out and your response cracked me up! You’re too cute! I love this post/lesson you’ve just shared, such a good point…and perpspective…or perspective lol

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      1. Hmm I agree, we could go somewhere with this…it’s funny talking about this because I’ve actually been wanting to write a post about editing etc because it never fails I hit the publish button on WordPress and then almost immediately spot an error, whether it’s spelling or whatever and it makes me crazy, but then there’s the whole gospel side of the post too but I won’t go into detail Incase I decide to write the post..I’m done rambling now lol

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  8. Never noticed it!! I read about an Amish tradition of always putting one quilt piece in at the wrong angle to remind the world that no one is perfect except for God. I kept thinking, “They had to do this ON PURPOSE!!???”

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  11. Hi Ann, remember I said of all people … a retired,perfectionist English teacher! I’m so glad all is well. This is one of those “life lesson” events that keeps us humble and gives us the ability to laugh at ourselves and it is priceless! Feel free to critique me anytime, I’m pretty sure I’ve given you lots to correct. Grace and blessings my friend.

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  16. Makes me smile! The Lord has definitely used my blogging to help me relax me more about mistakes. As a firstborn, I have always striven to do my very best, and am grateful for the freedom He gradually works into us from perfectionism! Thank you for sharing 🙂

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  17. I never even noticed the mistake until you said something. And I’ve been reading your (excellent!) posts for a while now. Fortunately I have a perfectionist English teacher for a husband. He’ll read a blog piece I’ve just posted and say, “Can I suggest just a little editing tweak?” His eagle eye has saved me on several occasions from embarrassing myself too badly. LOL!

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  20. Hi! Thanks for stopping by my site, and that’s how I found yours. I try to visit the sites of those who comment or give a post a “like.”
    I enjoyed this post. I wasn’t sure where your title was going to lead us, but I dived in to see what it was about. Take care.

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  21. Pingback: Error 101… – For His Purpose

  24. Haha! “Sweet”! 💫
    Oops! Speaking of mistakes, ironically, I mistakenly thought this was a comment on my last post, (5-30-22) about how God showed me I needed to give up sugar. I did, and it improved my arthritic knees so radically I haven’t had to have the surgery a doctor predicted I would need.

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