I must confess to a severe case of poverty. I never took a vow of poverty;
it just seems to have worked out that way for me. I am so poor the church
mice have packed their bags and moved on. If I knew where they moved to, I
might join them.

Being poor can have its advantages, but I have yet to run across any.

I am so poor I am not able to pay attention, especially when watching some
television program with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. This has
caused no small problem with my wife. We love an evening of unwinding before
the TV watching some of our favorite programs. I must confess those programs
are getting less and less each year. Soon we are going to have to go back to
reading books.

Together we will be watching a program, and when I say "we," I do it with
certain modifications. My wife will get up and go to the kitchen for
something and when she returns, she asks me a question, "What happened?"

I look at her with one of my infamous quizzical looks and respond, "Where?"

She then explains she is talking about what happened on the TV program while
she was away. I then tell her, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

This seems to be a source of real frustration for her.

"If you can't afford to pay attention," she will say sarcastically while
rolling her eyes, "couldn't you at least rent some attention some time?"

I tried explaining to her that old age is making me a little more forgetful.
She, however, is not buying it, so there goes my income stream.

For me, watching television is not an obsession; it is more like a
distraction. I do not follow every little bit on the television screen. For
me it is not a matter of life or death, it is just a matter of recreation. I
know that nothing on TV is real. We can be in the middle of the next program
and I do not realize that the first program has ended. Talk about confusing!

When something does catch my attention, boy does it have my attention.

"Did you," I ask my wife, "hear that?"

Then it is role reversal in prime time. I will not say she acts like me,
just that it comes pretty close to it. Not quite Oscar material, but close.

"What?" She said with a very confused look on her face.

So I had to explain the news story that I just happened to catch. I do not
know all of the details, I was not paying that much attention, just that
someone was fired from their job for saying to a customer, "Have a blessed
day."

I have met many customer service people that said things that I would want
them to be fired from, but this has never been on my list.

My wife then asked the question I was thinking. "What is wrong with telling
someone to have a blessed day?"

I could not figure it out. It is like at Christmas time some places do not
want their employees to say to the customer, "Merry Christmas." The
reasoning is, it might offend someone. What about us who are offended when
somebody does not say Merry Christmas to us? This matter of being offended
can go both ways. There should be an equal offended person law. There is a
law for everything else.

I just would like to meet the person who is offended by somebody saying to
them, "Have a blessed day."

Later that evening I was watching a new crime/detective story on TV and all
of a sudden, I heard some words that were offensive. They were saying curse
words that I have never heard on TV before. I have always believed that if
you have to use curse words, it is because your vocabulary is drastically
lacking in intellectual responses to the world around you.

Here is my dilemma. Why can you say curse words on TV, which everybody knows
is scripted, but you cannot say, "Have a blessed day," without getting
fired?

If I was in business I would want my employees to greet my clients with a
cheerful, "Have a blessed day" and not some awful curse words.

I was complaining about this to a friend of mine who explained to me that
curse words on television are considered "literary license." Who is paying
for that license I am wondering.

All of this has to do with the PC syndrome in our country today. The problem
is what was PC yesterday is no longer PC today. Who knows what tomorrow's PC
will be.

What I cannot accept is the fact that being crude and rude is PC and saying
something nice is not. Have we reverted to the caveman mentality? Is being
nice is no longer acceptable behavior?

I like what David says, "Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within
me, bless his holy name" (Psalms 103:1).

Perhaps the reason people are offended by that phrase is because they know
that only God has the power to bless. If I am being blessed by God, I am
going to turn around and bless people around me.

So, for those offended by that phrase let me say, "Have a blessed day. And
fire me if you dare."

Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, PO Box
831313, Ocala, FL 34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, in Silver Springs
Shores. Call him at 1-866-552-2543 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.netor website
www.jamessnyderministries.com.