There once was a girl whose speech was pure.  And then one day she met a handsome prince.  They enjoyed a fairy tale romance until the muck within them poured out.  Each of them carried different sets of dirt and with their dirt combined a slew of swear words broke free.  For a long time they lived like this, dishing out choice words when arguments reached a boiling point.  These words were specifically chosen to stun or wound the other.  And as time went on the words became easy to utter – a dangerous common place.

If you haven’t guessed, this tale is about me and, vicariously, Joshua. I reached my breaking point as I realized my curse words became easy for me to say – I no longer flinched each time I said one.  Truth is, from the very beginning I felt convicted each time I uttered a curse word.  But I’m sure you too can admit there are plenty of times when the stubbornness of human nature trumps the goodness of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  None-the-less, I finally started saying some half-hearted prayers about my bad habit.  And God is so good that he started slowly preparing my heart to ditch the dirty words – I felt myself getting closer to the day when I knew I would cut them out and never go back.

That day came a few weeks ago.

When I told Joshua about my commitment to ditch curse words for good he decided to come alongside me and ditch the angry words as a family.  I didn’t expect Josh to join me so wholeheartedly from the beginning, but I did know that by telling him of my conviction I was using the power of confession and accountability to drive me towards my goal.  Now my words are purer, yes, but my thoughts are too.

And now I’m curious.  What is your take on swearing?  Is it wrong or permissible and why?