The but always reveals what you really feel. It reveals what’s most important to you.

When my wife asks me to tackle this weekend’s sticky note located in the honey-do breeding ground on the inside of the pantry door and I answer, “Ok, but I was going to watch golf first,” I reveal that golf is more important than adjusting a pull-down shade.

When asked if you like the spaghetti sauce and you respond, “It’s wonderful, but I would have added more salt,” the but discounted how wonderful the sauce really is.

Buts are in the discounting business. A but causes the ears to ignore what preceded the comma.

One particular #blacklivesmatter twitter conversation parked this reality in my eternal garage.

When I say, “It’s horrible that a black man was killed, but destroying property has to stop,” I’m revealing a heart skewed to property before life.

When I say, “It’s horrible that property is being destroyed, but killing black men has to stop,” I’m revealing a heart rightly elevating life over property.

It’s not my right to destroy someone’s property. But it’s especially not my right to take a black man’s life.

Buts always strategically position themselves to win the day.

So mind your buts. Make sure they speak to what’s most important to you…and to Jesus.