Picture this: They laughed their heads off!

I love idioms: using words to create pictures. However, most are not to be taken literally. Think about the dreadful pictures conjured up by these: “You're killing me” or “I almost died laughing” or “you’re beating a dead horse” or “he lost his head” or "I'm bending over backwards."

We’re all familiar with the phrase: "Say what you mean, and mean what you say." Well, idioms are an exception. And if people don’t know that, they can be very confused. Now "hold your horses," I do have a point.

I think Christians must seem idiomatic to nonbelievers. We say we are about love, but our claims to exclusivity in matters of salvation can create a picture of intolerance. We say we are accepting, but our resistance to anything unbiblical can cause people to see us as mean-spirited. And though we can't control how people picture us, we can make every effort to be people who "say what they mean and mean what they say." And even more, to say what they mean without being mean when they say it.  Picture that!