One of my pet peeves is how some Christians use “God Bless you” as a sort of greeting and salutation. This is how the conversations often go:

Christian: Hey, Jeremy! God bless you!

[We talk about something…]

Me: Well, I gotta run.

Christian: Okay! God bless you!

Me: Uhh. Yeah. Thanks.

I know. I know. They want me to say, “God bless you” back. But I don’t do that. (I might say “Bless you” after someone sneezes, but that is something I learned from my wife… which I heard goes back to some old wive’s tale about losing part of your brain when you sneeze…)

How Do You Respond When People say “God Bless You”?

When someone says, “God bless you,” what I want to say is: “He has. And He’s blessed you too. So let’s stop talking like religious nuts and have a conversation like normal people.”

I mean look, if you only say God bless you because you want someone to say God bless you back, is that really going to be much of a blessing for either of us?

Also, can we really call down the blessing of God upon our lives by appending every conversation with the words “God bless you”?

I always wonder if men who say this greet their wife and kids the same way when they leave for work or get home in the evening. “I’m leaving for work! God bless you!” or “Honey, I’m home! God bless you!” I really doubt it. But then, since I’m not a “God bless you” sayer, I don’t really know what happens in “God bless you” homes.

God Bless You and Other Christian Lingo

Worse yet are the conversations that not only begin and end with “God bless you” statements, but are also full of statements like, “What a blessing! …An answer to prayer! …God is so good. …That just blesses my heart. …Oh, bless your soul! …Praise Jesus! …Amen!”

I am not much of a conversationalist, but my conversations with people like this usually end much quicker than normal. I have written about this before in a post called “This Video Really Spoke to My Heart.”

Maybe this is just the “overcritical me” coming out to snarl at the super-spiritual Christians again. If so, I’m sorry. 

But what about you? Do you say, “God bless you”? Why or why not? Am I making too much of this? (Probably so)