so cliche

my extraordinarily witty friend jodi recently posted several cliches on her blog that she has demanded "must be forbidden from ever passing anyone's lips — posthaste, pronto, and immediately, if not sooner". (you'll have to click above to see what trite phrases made her list).

comments from her post led me to this site: the cliche finder. some of the listed cliches I had heard before (as luck would have it), some were totally foreign to me (his long suit), and others were just plain stupid (if ifs and buts where candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas).

my dad would sometimes take us (julie, jodi, jill) to school when we were little. before we left the house, he'd excitedly say, "let's see if this dog'll hunt!" as we hopped out of his truck on those mornings, he would advise us to "not take any wooden nickels". he also said, when we didn't want to do something, eat something, etc., that "it" (whatever "it" was) would make our root grow." oh, yeah, another thing he used to tell us, when things were difficult or we needed to try harder, was to "grab a root and growl". (hmm..., these last two make me wonder.) oh, and by the way, DAD, i didn't know for the longest time that it was entirely inappropriate to say that "it's colder than a witch's t*t outside!!!"

so, anyways, i was thinking about how easy it is for us christians to throw cliches at people, especially people who are hurting. you know, "just give it to the lord", "just pray about it", "it's all part of god's plan", "hang in there and it will get better", "it's god's will", etc. i mean, fundamentally, these are all good suggestions, but they can also be very insulting and hurtful and seem disingenuine.

i'd like to hope that most of the time, these cliches are uttered by well-meaning believers...and they probably are. but in reality, cliches are just plain laziness. whoever said that sometimes saying nothing at all is better than saying something was right. if we don't have genuine comfort to offer someone, or we simply don't know what to say, we're better off keeping our mouths shut and offering a hug instead.

perhaps these are the "cliches" we should be using on a regular basis instead...

i'm sorry" ,
"i love you", and
"can i help?:

i don't think we can go wrong with these...do you?