Just? ...continued
My previous post was entitled "Just a mom?" In it I was advocating more respect for moms and their roles. But think about some other examples of how we use the word "just" to convey the meaning "only, merely, not more than": "You're going on furlough just to rest?" "Well, I guess all you can do is just pray." It seems to me that the use of the word "just" in this context really sends a message of devaluing the object it is describing (moms, rest, prayer). I haven't heard anyone say this out loud, but I imagine there might be people thinking it: "You're going on furlough just to rest?" It's hard to explain the need to rest from the mission field and I have to expect that some people will have a hard time understanding. But in an effort to show the need and value for this kind of "odd sounding extended time of rest", here we go... Being a missionary on a foreign ...