While the definitions of the 2 words are similar, in this case, we see one is geared more to fixing things BEFORE and one is more about fixing things AFTER. Proofreading is usually done by a 3rd party and editing is often done by oneself. As I sit here and go through my drafts and past posts to clean things up for the new year I have begun to really be aware of the “mistakes” in editing that have been made. Then, Holy Spirit started doing what He does best and begun to show me how it was like my life lately. We have all been there at some point I am sure of it. When you are writing something very important to you, usually, you take the time to write a draft, check the draft, and rewrite the draft till it is just right before submitting it to whoever, whatevr, or wherever. Even now, as I type this, I am ignoring the typos and just getting out what Holy Spirit showed me. Before I publish it I will go back and fix all the red squigaly lines, and check for gramer etc.. However, how many times have you written a text, social media post, email, or letter to a friend and sent it out, only to have someone laugh or get very confused because autocorrect or voice text messed it all up!? I have been so guilty of this so many times! As a matter of fact one of my best posts ever was a typo! As you can see I tried to take up quilting and ended up with folks thinking that I was trying to leave my job! 😂😂😂 It was great fun….but not always…See just days before that I’d taken a pic of a typo on a sign at my local Sonic and put it up on Facebook because, let’s face it, mistakes make us laugh…it may be mean but we laugh. Well, I don’t have the pictures of that to share because I was deeply convicted and ended up taking it down after the girl who made the mistake was publicly called out and laughed at on my post! I felt like a jerk….no….I WAS a jerk! So I did “edit” it by making another post and apologizing and removing the original post. So, I am here thinking about proofreading because LIFE should be looked at this way too! Are you living in a state of proofreading? Like, in your life, are you checking yourself before just putting yourself out there? Do you go over what you are gonna say to someone a few times before you say it so you can be sure its not taken wrong? Do you think of the best way to say or do things so that you can be sure not to say or do the wrong things? Or are you like me, spend a majority of your time editing? You just send out the text and then send 4 more texts after to correct the one txet that were wrong? I am definitely moving into a proofreading season! I do not want to live life in error. Nor do I wish to spend so much of my precious time here on earth “editing” my mistakes, when I could just send Holy Spirit to proofread situations and make sure they go out right the first time. It takes SO much more energy to go back, delete the post, and make a new one to “edit” what you’d done in the first one. In this case I shamed a girl because I didn’t let Holy Spirit proofread my actions before making them. I made myself, and the church look cold and mean. I caused a sibling in Christ pain as I publicly humiliated her. I was then approached by the girl, another friend who saw the post, and Holy Spirit! What a MESS I’d caused! If I had just let Holy Spirit take a quick peek at it first I would have been able to stop all that! So, I ask you today. Are you allowing Holy Spirit to proofread your life….or do you spend more time editing your own work? As for me I know I will be sending more of me to the Proofreader of my life and less of HIS time editing my own junk! Thank you for reading! God bless and shalom!