I am being technilogically challenged today

4:12LIVE

Donita K. Paul blogging. Somehow that sounds like slogging.
slog (slog)v. slogged, slog-ging, slogs.v. intr. 1. To walk or progress with a slow, heavy pace; plod: slog across the swamp; slogged through both volumes. 2. To work diligently for long hours: slogged away at Latin.v. tr. 1. To make (one's way) with a slow, heavy pace against resistance. 2. To strike with heavy blows.n. 1. A long, exhausting progress, march, or hike: a student's weary slog through Cicero; a slog through miles of jungle. 2. Long, hard work: an 18-hour slog in the hay fields.

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Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary
Copyright © 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
For me, anything having to do with computers and messaging and my cell phone takes about ten times the effort that is does for my son or daughter. I slog through the blog process.

I started this blog (I think another blog will show up with the title and nothing else) on the subject of an old song that a bunch of my author friends are debating today in a totally frivolous vein.
I wrote the title for this blog, then tabbed (I thought) to the message part. Instead, I got the pop up window that thanked me for entering my blog of the day.

So here I am slogging through a blog, trying to remember what I was thinking only a few minutes ago about the yellow polka dot bikini.

The question raised among my author friends was: Are the polka dots yellow, or is the bikini yellow and the dots another color or colors? (Yes, this is a group of adult, seriously Christian, dedicated authors. We all crack at some time.)

My contention is that the polka dots are yellow. A comma between yellow and polka dot would indicate that yellow modifies bikini, not polka dots.
Another worthy author says that the bikini is yellow. For the dots to be yellow, it would have to be yellow polka dotted bikini.

Then the conversation turned to why she was afraid to get out of the water when she had not been timid about getting in the water. Don't they know that a wet bathing suit is much more revealing than a dry one? Honestly!

That's when I came over here to 4:12 Live in search of some intelligent, meaningful interchange of erudite information. But I brought the yellow polka dot bikini with me and my own inept abilities at manuevering through a web site.

My writing friends were having a good time cheerfully debating the semantics of an old song. There is nothing wrong with that. I had fun poking fun at them, good-naturedly. Nothing wrong with that.

But the word slog has stuck in my mind. So often I hear people slogging through interpretations, hidden meanings, technicalities of the most mundane things. Energy spent debating something that is like a speck of dust in the cosmic scheme is a distraction. God tells us to in Micah 6:8
8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
I can recall in the New Testament, two admonishments against "slogging" through these type of arguments.
2 Timothy 2:23
23"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels."
and
Titus 3:9
9"But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless."

Foolishness such as the debate over the color of the polka dots is in the vein of a merry heart. The light-heartedness helps us remember that we are silly creatures (humble)
But endless debates in earnest about certain things is harmful. These sloggish debates distract us from what God truely wants us to be doing and in the long run, solve no problems.

Next time I hear someone going overboard in proving their point about whether a fashion trend, a popular book, or a TV reality show is leading our generation to perdition, I'm going to start humming the yellow polka dot bikini song and start looking for a widow or orphan to help.