Today is Nashunal Prufreeding Day, a day to encourage us to reexamine our printed work for grammatical and spelling errors. The day was established by Judy Beaver, a corporate trainer in honor of her mother’s birthday. With tongue in cheek, Judy says that her mother loved correcting people. Sounds like a nice way to say that she was critical! By the way, the errors were intentional in the opening line.
Do you know anyone who loves to correct others? They will be the first to point out a flaw or mistake, thinking they have done the world a great service. A bit of pride sneaks through as if there is a prize awarded to the first person who spots the mistake. As the person approaches you, you feel your heart sink, knowing what’s coming. You almost want to get ahead of it by saying, “Now what?”
Back in the day before spell check, there was the dreaded red pen wielded by the teacher. Some teachers drew so many lines, circles, and arrows that your returned paper looked more like a secret football play. The only problem was that this was a play for a team of one and all the red marks indicated that you had fumbled the ball! The letter grade at the top and the personal comments written throughout were disheartening.
National Day Calendar offers some great suggestions to help us proof our writings.
- Walk away – Proofread after an article, important email, or chapter has time to set, and you’re reading it with fresh eyes.
- Do not disturb – Remove all distractions, including phones, other deadlines, traffic, noise, and interruptions.
- Learn your habits – Keep a list of your routine errors and look for those first.
- Turn off the autocorrect – When used strictly as a tool, autocorrect may be helpful. However, over time we become reliant upon it. In texts and emails, it can overcorrect our messages, creating havoc. When we’re uncertain of the spelling or a word, there are many more reliable and efficient tools.
- Read it aloud – We catch different errors when we read aloud than when we read by sight alone.
- Read it backward – A fresh perspective allows us to find new errors. Start with the last sentence and work your way to the beginning.
- Fresh eyes – When the second set of eyes reads something completely new, it’s amazing what they find!
- Print it – And use a different font. Once again, our eyes see the document differently when it is printed on paper, and we find errors we didn’t see the first few times.1
I use most of these proofing methods and still find errors AFTER the devotional is printed. For those who genuinely try to be careful about these things, it is frustrating. But we are human and subject to flaws and failures no matter how careful we are.
When it comes to the Word of God, there are three “I”s and two “P”s that show us why God’s Word doesn’t need proofreading, editing, or correcting.
Inspired – 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” Inspired means God breathed. As God blew into the nostrils of the original “Dirt Man” and that dirt became a living soul, God breathed life into the sterile vocabulary words that make up the Bible. Those words came alive because they were God’s Words spoken and recorded for humanity.
Inerrant –God’s Word contains NO errors. Not a single one. Psalms 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” If you question the inerrancy of Scripture, you are forced to question the inspiration of Scripture. You can’t have one without the other
Infallible – God’s Word NEVER fails. We are told in Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. (6) Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” And, John 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) The same was in the beginning with God.” Since the Word of God is equated WITH God (and Jesus according to John 1:14), to question the infallibility of the Word of God is to question in the infallibility of the Godhead.
Plenary – This simply means all or everything. It goes along with the doctrine of inspiration. Not only is all Scripture given by inspiration of God, but all words are given 
by inspiration. From the first word of Genesis to the last word of the Revelation and everything in between without exception has been given by God.
Preserved – Many verses teach the doctrine of preservation. It doesn’t get any clearer than Psalms 12:7. “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Psalm 12:6 that we saw under the topic of inerrancy lets us know that verse seven is talking about the word of God.
Proof the preacher. Proof the Sunday School teacher. Proof the evangelist. But don’t proof the Word of God. Instead, READ it and BELIEVE it. “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
1https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-proofreading-day-march-8
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