Funny how certain things stay with you.

My grandson recently brought home a test he’d taken in school, one where they had to use spelling words in sentences. His mom noticed several smiley faces drawn on the paper by his teacher, and how one sentence in particular had garnered two smiley faces.

“I hope Hawaii won’t have any more abruptions.”

We laughed, teased about the cuteness of his answer, wondered how he knew about Hawaii’s volcanos, and even considered whether he’d coined a new word. It kind of made sense to us.

Definitions are Innocuous things, but sometimes they can be quite troubling. I mean, you know the meaning of the words you use, right? Or at least what you want it to mean.

Have you ever noticed how a song, a melody, a face, an insult or a compliment rattle around in your mind forever? For me it was abruptions, enough so I found myself searching Dictionary.com. By definition, abrupt means sudden or unexpected, while erupt means to break out of a pent-up state, usually in a sudden and violent manner.

As I pondered these meanings, it wasn’t difficult to see how a child might confuse the two words. That’s when I realized the Lord has sent many abruptions into my life over the years, and almost always when I’d grown complacent. (Complacent means pleased, especially with your own merits, advantages, situation, etc., and most often without awareness of some danger or defect; self-satisfied.)