I’ve talked about living in the South as an Asian guy, but I don’t think I’ve ever focused solely on the “Bible Belt” aspect– especially when it comes to dating.
Religion embeds itself in the speech down in Arkansas. You get a whole variety of different reactionary phrases:
- Good heavens!
- Bless her heart.
- I’ll be praying for you. (“Thoughts and prayers” probably being the most infamous variation of the bunch)
And for each one of those phrases, I feel like “I get it”. But there’s one context where I think adding God into the mix is just pouring salt on a wound: rejection.
“The Lord works in mysterious ways” is basically “everything happens for a reason”. But for the faithful, you have to believe “It’s all according to God’s plan”.
Maybe it is.
And if some things are part of his plan, sometimes there’s things that aren’t.
Maybe that’s true.
But you better believe, “You’re not part of God’s plan for me” is never going to be the right sort of phrase to pass on to someone.
The Conversation Coach 