diff --git a/mesh_bot.py b/mesh_bot.py
index a2a64e3..30eabca 100755
--- a/mesh_bot.py
+++ b/mesh_bot.py
@@ -332,12 +332,15 @@ def send_message(message, ch, nodeid):
     # if message over 160 characters, split it into multiple messages
     if len(message) > 160:
         print (f"{log_timestamp()} System: Splitting Message, Message Length: {len(message)}")
-        #message_list = [message[i:i+160] for i in range(0, len(message), 160)]
-        # smarter word split
+        # split the message into 160 character chunks
+        
+        #message = message.replace('\n', ' NEWLINE ') # replace newlines with NEWLINE to keep them in split chunks
+
         split_message = message.split()
         line = ''
         split_len = 160
         message_list = []
+
         for word in split_message:
             if len(line+word)<split_len:
                 line += word + ' '
@@ -345,6 +348,7 @@ def send_message(message, ch, nodeid):
                 message_list.append(line)
                 line = word + ' '
         message_list.append(line) # needed add contents of the last 'line' into the list
+        #message_list = [x.replace('NEWLINE', '\n') for x in message_list] # put back the newlines
 
         for m in message_list:
             if nodeid == 0: