How my preaching is helped by my Impediment

Most of you would know that i have a speech impediment. The more you are around me the less you tend to notice.

For me, the equation is simple. Avoid hard R's and L's. My daughter will not be called Laura nor my son called Larry.

Can i tame my impediment? Yes. If i focus and speak slowly. Do i bother? No.

When preaching i do two things to minimise the effects.

First, i know which phrases and words to avoid. I avoid saying the "glory of God" for example, instead i would talk about the majesty of God, or the wonder or the magnificence. The synonym feature in Word does most of the work for me. Also, I will never drop the sentence about the "little red race car that run around the racetrack."

Second, i work off a full manuscript. I may not keep to it as religiously as i did in the past, but planning what I'm going to say word-for-word, controls where my thoughts are going and draws me away from the entanglement of hard R's and L's.

I think the two things help. Firstly, it means i need to be more intentional in my prep. Second, i know fairly closely what i have said in the past and can pass that on or post it online (if the church I'm preaching at does this).