Pastor Mike Nodland of the Christian Fellowship Church in Vining, IA.

As a kid, there were certain things you didn’t discuss in public, called “taboos”…and you’d better have good reason to even bring them up in private at home! Taboos are supposed to be socially banned because they’re embarrassing, offensive or repulsive.

One day, I came home from school with one of those taboo questions that I didn’t understand as a third grader. It was in the form of a joke beyond my mental capability but not my curiosity. So, without thinking, I asked my mother what it meant. Well, I got a scolding like you’d think I unleashed a dozen cherry bombs at a funeral. Then she’d grab hold of my ear (and man, that hurt) and told me to listen up! Mama was a loving, Godly woman, but certain things she did not tolerate, and I tended to blindly stumble into them.

Taboos are one thing, but whoopensockers go opposite. They’re anything extraordinary, exceptional, remarkable of their kind. They can be used to describe a student that makes incredible achievements, or that first taste of rich coffee on a cold morning that’s out of this world or an indescribable sunrise.

One other whoopensocker to top all whoopensockers was Jesus Christ dying on a Cross for your sins and mine. Perfect forgiveness, perfect for you because He loves you!