Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday June 28, 2010

Over a 46 year period I have studied the wife of my youth in what has been up to now, a vain enterprise, trying to discover her arcane secret of controlling me. I factor in her rare beauty, tenacity and unusually high intelligence quotient, even taking into account that she sings above reasonably well.

As I was refreshing my mind on basic essentials of effective public speaking/preaching, I rediscovered a statement by the all time master orator, Winston Churchill. If ever there lived a man who lifted an entire civilization from the abyss of despair to absolute victory it was this master of the well placed, passionately spoken word. Mr. Churchill said:

"If you have important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time with a tremendous whack."

As far as I know Joyce, The Great Blonde, has never read this formula posited by Winston Churchill. Yet she has used it effectively since she was a mere child. She never lets up, the verbal blows becoming fiercer with each attempt. "Fierce" is really an understatement. The other day we were prayerfully discussing something of importance to her and I counted not the three rounds mentioned by Mr. Churchill, but eight blows, each building in intensity, much like a late afternoon summer storm. Number eight was a near nuclear whack. It would have made Winnie very proud. It made me a vanquished victim. Again.

I suppose if you don't have a point, you could pound the pulpit a few times for effect. I can tell you one thing; the girl can wave a butcher knife and get more results than most Bible waving thumping preachers. If I were as brilliant as the dear blonde, I would, on the first round, simply acquiesce. To acquiesce signals yet another defeat for yours truly, but it does save a lot of very brutal verbal exchange. I guess I have grown so used to her accepting my apology that I take this act of grace on her part for granted.

In exchange for this grand statement from Winston Churchill all I ask is that you do NOT FWD this to Joyce. If she reads the quote, she will be totally unbearable, knowing that she has been and is following a Master Point Maker in Churchill.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

It's when Joyce gets to the pepper that I am in trouble. Thanks to Churchill I now know where she is coming from.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit

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