Expletives

@!$%*&!!!!

Yes, we’ve all done it in life; we say a crude, lewd word that slips out before we can even stop it. Or maybe we INTENTIONALLY use such a word for impact. Whatever the case, the word gets put out into the atmosphere.

Recently, a young girl I was mentoring had a friend who approached me with such language. She’s 15. It offended and disappointed me because I could see the shock value and toughness the girl wanted to project. I could see that she wanted to impress me. She did not. I expressed my response to her poor choice. Yes, she’s young, but old enough to know better. Really, did she think that life would be better, enriched by using such foul language? I’m not prim, prissy and proper. Believe me, back in the day, I used my share of curse words, usually for poor and similar reasons, but it never made a situation better. It usually made it worse, quite frankly.

God tells us, in His Word, that we’ll give an account for every idle word we speak (Matthew 12:36). Sobering. That includes curse words, dirty words, expletives.  We need to ask ourselves, “Does what I’m about to say really benefit, help or encourage?” If not, then maybe, perhaps, we shouldn’t say it.

The fact is that we all say things we shouldn’t, act hastily. But we also, on some level “know better.”

This young girl, hurling expletives, has potential to make better choices than those crude words. Each person has such tremendous value, that choosing these poor quality words reflects ignorance and shame upon that person, not dignity and respect.

It’s a reminder to all of us to “come up higher.” We can always make another choice. Words that have true power are those that edify and build up, not tear down or destroy. Let’s all concentrate on those words instead.