Two Ways To Use The Phrase “For The Love Of God”
Only one of them does any good.
I am one of those people who sees pictures when they hear words.
When I was a child, what people said often took me aback because it immediately translated into a literal visual expression.
Sometimes it was funny, and sometimes it scared me.
The saying, “Catch you later,” always invoked the picture of me flying through the air to be caught by the other person—later.
It always startled me until I realized they didn’t mean it literally.
When I was eleven, I walked through the living room while a TV show played in the background.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone on the TV sneaking around a barrier with a rifle, and the announcer said, “You asked for it!”
I was stunned and terrified. What had I done to warrant a man with a rifle stalking me?
It took me a second or two to remember it was TV, and they weren’t talking to me. But it made quite an impression.
Even then, I recognized the power of words.
Because even if you don’t see pictures when you hear words, they still become the basis of your beliefs.
And what you believe affects the quality of your life.
Which makes it imperative that we take the time to pay attention to what we hear and say.
Sometimes, our impulses, like mine, cause us to see literal pictures, but more frequently, it happens because we are so accustomed to hearing something that we don't take the time to consider what it really means.
This brings me to the phrase, “For the Love of God.”
How often do we use it correctly?
This phrase popped into my head as I thought about Valentine’s Day. I was thinking about how we take one day a year to express our love, but wouldn’t it be great if every day was about love, “For the Love of God?”
However, as I heard that phrase, I realized that people typically use it to address someone else before a different, unrelated phrase that has nothing to do with love.
Like: “Why don’t you pay attention?” or “Don’t you have any sense?”
But, when we say, “For the Love of God, What Is Wrong With You!” aren’t we missing something?
Wouldn't something like "For The Love Of God, Do You Know How Wonderful You Are?" be more appropriate?
Or even more accurately, “As the Love of God, Do You Know You Are the Loved of Love?”
Here’s another way to look at it.
One day, my bathroom nightlight was not lighting up.
Since there was only one outlet in the bathroom, I had a plug with six outlets plugged into it, and of course, the nightlight was taking up one of those outlets.
I removed the six-outlet plug and reset the one outlet.
We checked the fuses. They were fine.
So, I plugged the six-outlet plug back in and tested the night light. Nope, it didn’t work. I tried all six outlets, but none of them worked.
My conclusion? The six-outlet plug was broken. So I threw it away.
I replaced the bulb in the night light for good measure and plugged it back in.
It still didn’t work. I tried it at every outlet in the house. No joy.
It took me too long to realize that my original conclusion was wrong.
There was nothing wrong with the six-out plug. It was the nightlight itself that was broken.
The phrase “For the Love of God” is not broken, so throwing it away is unnecessary.
It is the many other phrases that we tack onto it that make it appear not to work.
If we could say to ourselves, “With every task I undertake, “For the Love of God” I do this,” and then replace the word “God” with a quality of God to match the task, then wouldn’t love be the outcome of the day?
For the love of beauty, I clean my house.
For the love of order, I balance my checkbook.
For the love of innocence, I protect my children.
With variations of the phrase “For the Love of God” as our mantra, every day would be about and for love.
We could still celebrate love with hearts, flowers, and candy once a year, but every day would be “For the Love of God.”
Imagine where our thoughts would be then and what a difference that would make in everyone’s life.
“For the Love of God,” let’s practice “For the Love of God” with the appropriate phrases following and prove to ourselves that it is not broken.