Control+Z
When I am typing, I use my Control+z function often. I’m not techy enough to know if that will ring a bell with you or not; but in the programs I use, if I press the CTRL button first and then the z, the words I typed just before that disappear or, to put it another way, it undoes (is that a word?) what I just typed.
This idea of undoing what you just did is relatively new in the history of the world.
When I took typing, we learned on manual typewriters.When we made a mistake, we erased it with a special typing eraser. To picture the eraser, imagine a unicycle. The “wheel” was made of eraser material. In place of the “seat” was a small brush used to brush off the bits of eraser left on the paper. This operation had to be performed with the paper still in the typewriter, because if you ever took the paper out, it was almost impossible to get it lined up exactly the way it was before. Trust me. Doing this took longer than hitting Control+z. It sometimes resulted in a hole in the paper, too.
After erasers came erasable paper. Though we rarely rubbed a hole in the paper, the paper was so erasable that sometimes what we didn’t want to rub off rubbed off anyway because the paper was so erasable.
Then came Wite Out®, a bottle of white smelly liquid with a brush similar to the one inside a nail polish cap, with which we painted the smelly “paint” over our mistake. After blowing it to make it dry, we typed over the Wite Out®. Paint it on too thin and the mistake showed through. Paint it on too thick and, well, trust me, it wasn’t so pretty. Then came Wite Out® correction tape . . .
I much prefer Control+z — no holes, no paper that feels and looks weird, no bright white paint or tape that is a brighter white than the paper.
Control+z works great for written words, but there is no Control+z function for the words we speak. One of my favorite Dailey and Vincent songs is “We’re All Here to Learn.” The song is an encouragement to live a positive life. It also encourages us to watch what we say because we can’t take it back.
There are some sentences that a child or spouse should never hear, sentences like, “I never wanted any more children after your older sister was born.” or “I should have married _______.” — you know, things like that.
There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword,
But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 12:18
We certainly don’t want to thrust a sword of words into our husbands or children. We want to bring healing instead.
Praise God that He offers forgiveness that is real and complete for the times we do thrust a sword. Praise Him, too, that He has even taught His children to forgive like that.
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:12