Increase Your Word Power

Increase Your Word Power

Do you have a favorite magazine? It may arrive weekly or just once a month, but it always makes your day brighter when you find it in the mailbox. One popular monthly has been brightening readers’ days since it debuted on this date in 1922. It had no illustrations or ads back then. It simply reprinted condensed versions of articles appearing in other publications. Maybe that’s why husband-and-wife publishers DeWitt and Lila Bell Wallace called it Reader’s Digest.

Over the years, Reader’s Digest has become well known for features such as “Laughter, the Best Medicine,” “Humor in Uniform,” and the brainteaser “Word Power,” guaranteed to improve even the best vocabulary. Have you ever tried that one? You get a list of challenging words and have to pick the correct definition from several possible answers. Sort of like this:

1. propitiate
   • a) to empty of malice or deceit
   • b) to exact retribution or punishment
   • c) to appease or turn aside wrath
2. selah
   • a) profound grief or sadness
   • b) musical term, possibly indicating an intended pause
   • c) sluggish, not hasty
3. expiation
   • a) purification or cleansing, atonement
   • b) charging excessive interest on money lent
   • c) a proclamation of good news

You may recognize those tricky terms from the Bible. So how did you do? If you guessed c, b, and a, congratulations! As Christians, it’s important to increase our word power, not just in our spiritual vocabulary, but also by understanding and applying the power that comes from God’s Word. That may seem like a lot for readers to digest, but most of the time the Bible is very straightforward and easy to grasp. As it says in Psalm 119:130, “The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.”

Daddy-Daughter Time

Talk about the magazines you enjoy reading and why. Then try “Word Power” and see if you can make three new words a permanent part of your vocabulary. If you don’t subscribe to Reader’s Digest, you can find back issues at the library. You can also try to stump each other by creating your own quiz (like the one above) with the help of a Bible dictionary or concordance.

What’s The Word?

Your laws are wonderful. No wonder I obey them! The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.   Psalm 119:129-130