Week Two: Day Five
The Story
Matt went through a rough season when he was twenty-one years old. He had developed a terrible habit of using some pretty foul language. Matt had been in his final semester of student teaching as a third-grade teacher when he accidentally used a despicable word in front of one of his students. He had been speaking to another teacher. Both Matt and the other teacher had become friends recently and were not far apart in age. What became of the incident changed the course of Matt’s life forever.
Randall was a squeaky clean third grader who, believe it or not, had never heard the word Matt had used before. He had been near his teacher when Matt said the word but was unaware of it. Later that day Randall went around using the word with several of his friends so that ten other third graders began using the word. Some had added it their vocabulary for the first time that day as well.
As you can imagine, Randall and his friends took the word home with them. It did not take long for reports to begin to come in to the principal from parents. As soon as the principal could verify the situation he brought Matt in and immediately fired him on the spot. It was a disaster for his career because he was in his senior year. He was not able to finish his coursework.
Ultimately, Matt was so distraught by the whole situation that he decided to change his entire career path. If it were not for that one little word spoken in what seemed like a meaningless situation, his life would be on an entirely different trajectory. Beyond that, the students would not have been impacted the way that they had.
Matt learned an incredibly valuable lesson that day. He even committed to ridding himself of foul language all together and recognized that it was entirely his fault that he was caught doing that. He had no ill will towards the principal, the parents or the students who had reported him. He understood what the Bible meant by ridding yourself of this type of discourse.
The Devotion
If a change in your beverage list or vocabulary is how you view Christianity, then your view may be a bit limited. While each of those things are important, and certainly admirable, they are but some of the fruit of a life lived well for Christ and not the main concern.
That being said, cussing, curse words, unwholesome talk, coarse joking, and swearing are detrimental to your daily Christian walk. I can’t think of one case in my life where another human being was encouraged when that type of language was used. Conversely, countless times in my life those types of words have been used in disparaging contexts.
I would like to pose three reasons why we should not cuss, swear or curse. Use whatever word you would like for it. Perhaps one of these three will resonate with you and lead you to help someone else turn from that type of foul language.
ONE. Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian who is known to be clean. (Side note: clean is an extremely relative term here.) While I have seen his use of cursing in behind the scenes videos, he has chosen, for the most part, to leave cursing out of his standup routine. When asked, he said it was because using foul language is a type of shortcut. Those kinds of words drum up cheap imitation interest in a joke that can only be built in it’s true form by having a mastery of comedic language and timing. He said he would rather take the long road that fewer travel.
TWO. One of my dearest friends at church calls swearing a lack of use of your intelligence muscles. You evoke emotion without needing to think. In essence, you’re being lazy. Most of us are smart enough to find other ways to communicate better points without the use of the common swear word.
THREE. God speaks about obscenity in Ephesians 5:4: “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” Just before that verse, Paul welcomes his readers to “follow God’s example.” Can you imagine God or Jesus needing to reach us using obscene language? This should tell us something.
For me, each of these reasons for discontinuing foul language have closed the deal. I would rather be in the business of taking the long, but quality route rather than taking the cheap shortcut any day. If God is against something, I don’t want to be for it.
I realize that ridding cursing and other forms of foul language from our lives is a process. To discontinue that language immediately would take God’s direct intervention. However, we can make strides to break down that bad habit, replacing it with wholesome talk and encouragement. God truly wants to refine us as in a fire. My only hope is that we will think highly enough of one another to value and respect each other as Christ would.
The Bible
Ephesians 5 | Proverbs 11 | James 3
The Prayer
“Dear Lord Jesus, I pray today that my mouth would speak blessings and not curses. I know that You have given us language for the purpose of building up Your kingdom. May I use my words with wisdom and always with the intent of extending Your kingdom. Please remove in me any word from my vocabulary that does not glorify You. I thank You that You care deeply about me, my family and my friends and how we interact. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
