It goes without saying…

Recently I was with one of the residents from the Courtyard, a place where Christian students can grow in their faith in their independence from mom and dad and in how now should they live. Time in a car either with college students or your children, especially when they're young, yields interesting tidbits of information.  As I was letting this young man off at the Courtyard, he turned to me and said, "It goes without saying… Pause well maybe… my time here at the Courtyard  (eight weeks so far) has made a tremendous impact on my spiritual growth."  He took the time to thank us for providing this important place for him... for his fellow residents, too. 

It didn't surprise me what he said, as I often witness residents growth in these college students' lives, in general and also their spiritual walk with God. But what I did take away from this brief encounter what is the phrase that I had not heard for a while "it goes without saying".

That little phrase as been running around my head for a day but seemed like a week. I have heard it many times in the past and fewer times in the present and I'm not sure if it is because people are not using that phrase or they're just doing it, 'letting it go without saying' anything about what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what moves them to action to change themselves and transform the world.

So, I am trying to check myself to determine if I ever 'let things go without saying'.  Do I ever let things go without saying with my wonderful wife, Kim, or our children, especially because they're adults and away from home.

Do I ever approach Jesus or my heavenly Father, with an attitude of "it goes without saying"? Thanksgiving is this week and I believe Americans, in general, do not practice a heart of gratitude about their lives. Husbands and wives get in a rut and let many things 'go without saying' how much they appreciate the other; how much they appreciate the love and respect of the other.  Children, today, use the words 'thank you' as if it were the most common thing in the world to say... "It goes without saying", so why bother. 

"It goes without saying…" is a kin to somebody else will do it; somebody else will tell of its importance, somebody else will support the work being done, somebody else will give their time and energy to invest in others.

This Thanksgiving, and every day going forward, let our speech be filled with positive things said to family members, spouses, friends, a wait-person, a receptionist, fellow workers or students; those things that, a day earlier, we would have lived out the phrase, "It goes without saying..."

The COURTYARD. www.CourtyardLife.org