Just Plain Ol’ Yes or No

When I was in school there was an acronym which was used mostly in writing/English.  This acronym was K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple, Stupid. I found a couple of other variations “Keep It Simple and Straightforward” and “Keep it Short and Simple”.  These were to help the writer understand that simple is sometimes better.  I, for one, had a bad habit of being too wordy with some of the papers I would write.

As I like to design, I have to use this principle, too.  Sometimes a wild design does not make it more appealing.  Whether that design is a billboard, fashion, flyer, or PowerPoint, sometimes simple is the best way to go.

Sunday, we looked at Jesus addressing the crowd in Matthew 5:33-37, and talking about oaths/swearing.  He has these nuggets of information that he is giving out to the crowd. As He points out that an oath is not needed when communicating something of importance we can use that same principle to apply to our life, just keep it simple!  Here are some applications to choose from to use this week…

• Pray For Your Responses ~ If you are prone to have the desire to use a lot of filler in your answers, rather than a “yes” or “no”, pray that God will help you be more of a “simple” person. Especially if that filler is cover up for something.
• Help Others You Influence ~ I can see this being heavily directed toward parents to do to their kids.  But it could be to a good friend or someone you have a lot of interaction with that you feel comfortable saying it to.  If someone tends to be really wordy with their answers to the questions you ask, say something like “all I need is a yes or a no”.
• Reflect Him in Your Simplicity ~ As you are being a person who follows through with what Jesus is explaining to this crowd, may your simplicity of answers be a positive reflection of who you are, as a Christian and as a person.

Keeping it simple will be much more productive than making things more complicated.  Whether it is in this situation or others, I think that we’d all probably be better off from time to time to follow the K.I.S.S. principle! (You can decide how you want to define that acronym :) )

Working on keeping it simple…