Think about That- I Reckon

I'm from Eastern Kentucky, and we pretty much speak our own language.

We also speak this language with a southern drawl, at least I do.  As I've gotten older, one of my favorite words is y'all.  And I'm  not even a people person...

I say ain't and use grammar incorrectly.  I really wasn't that bad until I became a nurse.  You can laugh if you want to, but throughout middle school and high school I loved to write, and my English teachers did not prescribe to Eastern Kentucky slang.

Nursing, though... first, we don't write in complete sentences.  There is never a subject in charting, because it is assumed you're talking about the patient about whom you're charting, because otherwise, what relevance would it have? Secondly, we're taught to communicate with our patients in ways which they understand.

When I went to work in a nursing home, I took this literally. Even though I once got called down for my naturally loud voice ("Honey, I may be old, but I am not deaf. You don't have to scream at me." Um... sorry... that's just how I talk to everyone.), I adopted the mannerisms of speech that many of the patients had... and I don't mean that stereotypically.

I just started using ain't. And reckon. And bless your heart... a lot.  I say that a lot.  It's a Southern thing... and Kentucky is close enough.

Philippians 4:8 tells us to "think on these things."

As I mentioned yesterday, think means to consciously put your mind to something. It comes from the Greek, logizomai, which means "to take into account, to consider, to meditate on... and also to reckon."

Yes, you read that right.  To reckon. One of those Eastern Kentucky words that slipped into my vocabulary so easily.

As In, "Reckon it will rain tomorrow?"

You think?  And then the response, usually translated as an affirmative. Something that you know will happen.. unless you say, "I reckon not."

Generally speaking, though, when I say reckon, it means that I'm assuming it will happen. What I'm thinking about is, indeed, likely to happen or is true.

So we are to "reckon on these things..."  Take into account whatsoever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable.  Consider them as being absolute.  When you see the negative in the situation, believe that these things are there, anyway... because you reckon on them.

I have always grinned when I read a verse Paul wrote, not because it is a light subject matter, but because it sounds like something someone from here at home would say.  (And I recognize that he didn't actually say reckon... but I can just imagine it coming out that way. Perhaps with a Southern drawl, for full effect...)

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

Y'all. Bless our hearts.  I reckon that the troubles we are going through this very minute are nothing.  Nothing! Compared to the glory we have coming in us!

Reckon... the same word used for think in Philippians 4:8. 

Reckon- I don't just think.  I know.  I know that in all of this world's trouble, there is good. There is truth, and honesty, and righteousness, and pureness, and loveliness.  I know there are things of good report and things that are virtuous and praiseworthy. I know that in this world, I'll have trouble, but Jesus has overcome, and that is truth and right.  And I know that the glory that will be revealed... it will be worth it all.

Just think about that.