I SWEAR!!!

If there is one vice that I know I will have a hard time getting rid of or at least decreasing, it's swearing. I am absolutely fantastic around family members and my boys--it's not as if many times I even have to say fake words--i.e. freakin', heck, dangit, shoot, etc. that seem to be the "ok" way of saying things.

But around my friends, my wife, and some times even just talking aloud, I swear...A lot. And it's not some times just casual "cussing", it's the full on "effin" everything with interspersed words that George Carlin many years ago typified as the "no-nos".

I understand that for me to be a Christian that this will absolutely have to subside. Ephesians 4:29 tells us, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." I also understand that many times I am undercutting my self by cussing a lot, because to me those words some times come out because of not "using words" effectively, and thereby promotes ignorance on many fronts.

To be honest, though, this will be difficult. Many of my friends have potty mouths, many of my co-workers, and so the peer pressure end of things, the idea that "I will be come like the friends I choose" starts to seep in ever so slightly. So does that mean that I scrap my heap of friends and find others that don't swear? Well....no, that's not the answer. The answer is that my heart, mind, and soul has to believe that swearing is not what Jesus would care for us to do and that it is not a good steward of the Lord.

Perhaps that does mean that I need to start making a habit of trying intentionally to really work on those "fake" words as an intermediary to at least baby step my way from cussing and swearing. I honestly don't even think about it some times, which again scares me, because that's not what I want to 1) relate to other people and 2) it's not something that I should be proud of especially in this quest for faith.

So, I should probably get frickin' started, shouldn't I?