A couple of weeks ago, I got caught in the middle of a debate I didn\u2019t expect. During an interview with a potential client, the client said something that didn\u2019t get my attention, but it caught everyone else off guard. She used choice words to explain that she puts 100 percent behind everything she does; she doesn\u2019t do anything halfway.<\/p>\n
Because I work at a Christian nonprofit, the words she chose sparked a bit of controversy. I didn\u2019t find her words offensive at all, but others in the room thought they were inappropriate. On the swear word spectrum, in their minds, it was closer to the \u201csinful\u201d end than the \u201choly\u201d end.<\/p>\n
This made me wonder, Are younger Christians like me more lenient with foul language and swearing?<\/em><\/p>\n I try my best not to swear out loud.<\/p>\n Once when I was younger, I remember sitting at the dinner table and using words I\u2019d heard my friends say.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d my dad asked while my mom looked at me in horror. Being the ignorant child I was, I repeated it loudly and clearly a second time. My parents swiftly corrected me and dismissed me from the dinner table without dessert.<\/p>\n There were other times I learned swear words because my mom accidentally let them slip in anger. She quickly told my brother and me, \u201cNever say that. Mommy should never have said that.\u201d<\/p>\n And then I went to high school.<\/p>\n I heard it all. Every combination imaginable. In fact, using the F-word as an adjective wasn\u2019t only acceptable, but expected. Everyone was swearing, even my Christian friends. Especially my Christian friends, in fact.<\/p>\n Despite the high school crowd, my parents led by example and reinforced that swearing is never acceptable, so those words never became part of my vocabulary. But I\u2019ve been around a fair share of Christians who swear out loud, and it\u2019s never bothered me.<\/p>\n Maybe it should though.<\/p>\n On several occasions, it has amazed my friends that I don\u2019t swear. But I have to admit I swear more often than I\u2019d like \u2014 just nobody hears it.<\/p>\n I imagine I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n Almost every night on my drive home from work, some other driver does something careless and I use choice words \u2014 in my head \u2014 to express my frustration. They\u2019re four letters long.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I find it difficult to tell my Christian friends to stop swearing around me. I don\u2019t have room to talk or get upset. I\u2019d be pointing out the sliver in their eye when I\u2019ve got a giant log in my own.<\/p>\n I could benefit from friends calling me out about my swearing, but how could they hold me accountable<\/a> when I don\u2019t express my sinful language for others to hear it?<\/p>\nSwearing out loud<\/h4>\n
Swearing in my head<\/h4>\n