Just checking in here to announce that I have moved to wordpress to continue my blogging.
www.danwhang.wordpress.com

For this month, I will be regularly updating with posts on my Advent devotionals and thoughts.

For those of you who were at Friday's large group, and were interested in taking the spiritual gift analysis that Pastor Dwight mentioned - here is the link:

Gift Analysis

Hope it helps, and if anyone has any questions or concerns about anything, feel free to contact me!

Came across a Marist poll online that listed the most annoying phrases that Americans use in conversation. The results went something like this:

- 47% of Americans found "whatever" to be most annoying
- 25% - "you know"
- 11% - "it is what it is"
- 7% - "anyways"
- 2% - "at the end of the day"
- Honorable mentions - "freakin'" "like" "literally" "basically" "i don't care"

I chuckled because though these don't annoy me to death, I do notice when people frequently throw in these phrases in their sentences either by habit, to make a point, or just because they think they sound cool. To this, I say, "whatever..."

But what I will say is that our words definitely rub people or influence people in one small way or another. Paul, in the Bible, knew this and so writes things like, "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt..." and "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up..." Our words have the ability to annoy, hurt, build, encourage, and strengthen all at the same time.

As God's children, let's take some time to ask the Lord to redeem all of our speech, so that those who hear us speak would hear the voice of God and be blessed and built up by our words.

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." - Psalm 19:14