You and I

I have kept a journal of morning prayers for years. Pages and pages of scrawled out personal prayers to the Almighty about whatever was on my mind. They are not for public consumption and would probably be undecipherable to most people.

From the beginning, I addressed God with a capital letter, “You.” Lord, You know what is on my mind. Thank You for listening. It seemed appropriate, even in my personal journal, to capitalize “You.” His Royal Majesty. God.

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth. Isaiah 44:24

Somewhere along the way, I stopped capitalizing “i.” Maybe it was after seeing one of those window stickers “HE>i” (He is greater than i.) It seemed prideful somehow to give myself the same honor as i was giving God. Quickly, i became accustomed to the lower case i. The practice was easy in my journal. My computer is a different story. My writing software does not accept my sudden humility!

The English language capitalizes “i” whenever used as a pronoun. English is the only language that capitalizes “i” in the middle of a sentence. This would not seem so egotistical if we capitalized other pronouns, like “they” or “he” or “she.” But we don’t. Only I get that honor. Even “we” doesn’t get that honor, as if adding another person lessens my value somehow. It feels very vain to me.

Many languages do have a formal “You” that is used to show respect or recognize the authority of the person being addressed. English does not even have that. The English language does not deem you as important as I.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Philippians 2:3

So, not only is He greater than i, but you are at least as important, if not more so, than i.

I had wanted to write my blogs using the lower case i. I tried it out on a few people, but they found it distracting. And my writing software is constantly trying to correct me. So, i gave that up. Except for this post. Because i want you to know that i do not consider myself more important than you. And i do not consider either of us as important as God. He is the one who deserves the honor. He is the only one who deserves the capital letters.

If you journal, i would like to challenge you to try this for a while. The practice is a subtle but constant reminder that He is God and i am not.

Beyond that, what does it say about the English language that we capitalize “i” and not “you”? What does it say about us as a people? Has it formed our thinking?

What does it say about me that i am bothered that my writing software is “failing” this document because i am refusing to correct my capitalization errors? I don’t like all the error messages. So you know what? I turned it off. What is acceptable practice will not dictate my every action. You, or the computer, are welcome to consider me weak in grammar skills, but i have a point to make.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Don’t worry, i will return to proper English grammar, as vain as i find it, in the next post. The purpose of the posts, after all, is not to change our language, but to encourage you to speak with God, whatever language you use.

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Romans 6:26

Thanks you for sharing your time with me. If you enjoyed this post, i hope you share it with others.

Betsy