So to understand this a bit better for future reference, if you don't mind the question...

Before your last message I was beginning to think that I should be dealing more with the cell value rather than the input message. I was looking into maybe checking to see if the active cell was empty and, if so, then clearing the validation text. So now I'm curious why the "if clause" is asking whether the input message is blank rather than if the cell itself is blank? (are we treating the cell value as the input message in a way here?)

Just a noob wondering...