Cussing

     My dad used to tell us kids a story about his grandmother: one of the kids would cuss in front of her and she would say "There's no such thing as a bad word, only bad intentions." I always liked the story (even if Mom and Dad didn't agree in being so laissez faire about the whole cussing thing) and remembered it when I came across an article on how cussing isn't the biggest problem in the world; God has bigger things to clean up in our lives.
     The basic premise is that Christians shouldn't cuss. But to get around cussing they create a language that is "acceptable" yet still stands in for the same thing. Then the article delves further into the concept of sinful and non-sinful language for example, a close friend gets an amazing gift for Christmas and you say "I hate you", it's joking and expressing your jealousy in a way the friend understands. But in a different situation, someone hurt your feelings and you want to return the favor so you say "I hate you" it becomes sinful--because of your intentions.
     The article goes on to talk about intentions as opposed to actions and how people who flaunt their language as a way of sounding cool aren't as cool as they think, but the writer notes there is something about using foul language that is unacceptable in and of itself. I just got to thinking about what we consider cussing and what is acceptable language, but I always come back to my great-grandma's philosophy: there are no bad words. Only bad intentions dirtying the language with which they are expressed.

Just a thought....
Stephie