Don't forget the guh

July 14, 2014
          Day 75

It was just one of those teachable moments my family didn't see coming.  First came the sneeze.  Then came the response.  And then came the lesson.

So here's what happened.  Someone sneezed, and someone else said, "Bless you".  My young niece heard this, and corrected the person quickly by saying, "You forgot the guh".  It took people a moment to realize what she meant by this.  The guh?  I forgot the guh?  But then they realized.  She thought the correct response to a sneeze was the phrase, "Guh bless you".  That's what she thought was being said, and for good reason, because it had now morphed into this. 

The creator of Heaven and Earth, the Father, the Mother, the Master and Commander of the universe, this being beyond definition who we usually refer to as God, was apparently now known as simply guh.  It had happened without anyone realizing it, and certainly without anyone intending it. 

When someone sneezed, the youngest member of our family believed, you should respond by saying, "Guh bless you". 

Now I wouldn't exactly call my family a bunch of holy rollers, but we do very much believe in God and Heaven.  So yes, hearing our littlest one say we forgot the guh was a bit of a wake-up call!  I'm sure more than anything else, it was just funny, but it also reminded everyone about the importance of pronunciation around a toddler, too!   

And therein lies the lesson.  Maybe you'll use this example as a reminder for spirituality, or perhaps just a reminder of the importance of proper pronunciation, but it's a true story, and one I thought you'd like.  It's certainly a story I've thought of often over the years.  So please watch how you say things around children, and most importantly, don't forget the guh!