Many people think I’m
weird about words. “It’s just a word,” a counselor friend declares – attempting
to convince me that it’s fine for children to curse. I don’t agree. Even while
teaching adults, I often stopped students in hallways and common areas
who were dropping f-bombs to let them know that educated people should
have attained the use of a broader vocabulary than f-ing this and f-ing that. It
simply makes people sound ignorant, in my opinion.
When it comes to my
children, I’m even more vigilant about what they can hear, because what goes in
may eventually come out. With my oldest, I managed to prevent him from even
hearing the f-word until he was ten. That wasn’t easy to do. It meant heavily
restricting his movie-watching, friends, and most-importantly: where he went to
school (private Christian school). Then one day, it happened. I left him with a
trusted sitter, someone I’d known forever and trusted. She, apparently, thought
nothing of saying it in front of my kid. And he came home and proudly repeated
it. Theory confirmed (what goes in comes out).
But the real f-word is
much more dangerous, in my opinion. The word is “fool.” I remember the first time I
heard someone use the word – in seventh grade as we were heading for our
after school buses, a worldly kid shouted at another boy, “You’re a fool!” A
felt icy cold air around me. I felt certain that boy had just signed himself up
for hell.
But I say unto you, That whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the
council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
- Matthew 5:22
- Matthew 5:22
When I was around fifth
or sixth grade, some of my peers started using the word “idiot.” When my folks heard
us kids using the word, they put a stop to it, pointing out that idiot is synonymous to fool. I
later came to realize that most insults are also synonyms of fool. So are
there any safe insults to hurl at people? Is this the point of Matthew 5:22?
Don’t insult people? Don’t call people names?
Although, I’ve overcome
my past enough to realize much of what was taught and widely accepted was not
biblically accurate, I’m still terrified of words like fool.
And worse than fool, is
the taking of God’s name in vain – which, to my mind, I confuse with blasphemy.
Maybe I’m incorrect about that, but I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Truthfully I’d prefer to hear the f-word a million times than to hear someone
take God’s name in vain.
What do you think about
the power of words? Harmless or very potent?
