Over the years I have listened to a lot of people. I have heard different dialects of English. I have listened to grammar when it is normal for the person using it. I have also heard poor grammar when the person using it thought that it was good grammar. There are uses that change over the years. A few years ago many, many people began sentences with the conjunction, “but.” Eventually “but” disappeared, and new sentences began with the conjunction, “so.” I would like to say, “So what?” Another word that has crept in is the word “like.” It will appear as many as five times in one sentence.
Luke 6:45 tells us that the mouth overflows with what is good or bad in the heart. My last two years in high school I worked in the Union stock yards in Omaha, Nebraska. The language was foul. Then I enlisted in the Navy. It did not improve. I thought that when I got to the Naval Academy, the language would improve. It did not. Then I hoped the language would be better with commissioned officers. It wasn’t. In my last year in the Navy I was sent for six months temporary duty to the staff of Commander Carrier Division 5 operating in the East China Sea. I was to be the officer in charge of a classified team of twenty communication technicians, one chief petty officer, and one ensign. We were, except when sleeping and eating, locked up in one room together. It was an operation 24-7. I looked up the chief petty officer before we went aboard and said something like this, “Chief, I have been in the Navy nine years and I heard all kinds of four letter word sentences while sailing. We are going to be in one room together for the next six months. I want you to communicate to the sailors that there will be no profanity in that room for the next six months.” There was no foul language.
In counseling people, one of the first questions I ask is, “What is your mouth like?” Since 1956, I have been in Christian bookstores and other kinds of Christian work. I very seldom have heard any dirty words. It would be easy to think it is not there anymore because the words are not used around me.
Luke 6:45 tells us that the mouth overflows with what is good or bad in the heart. My last two years in high school I worked in the Union stock yards in Omaha, Nebraska. The language was foul. Then I enlisted in the Navy. It did not improve. I thought that when I got to the Naval Academy, the language would improve. It did not. Then I hoped the language would be better with commissioned officers. It wasn’t. In my last year in the Navy I was sent for six months temporary duty to the staff of Commander Carrier Division 5 operating in the East China Sea. I was to be the officer in charge of a classified team of twenty communication technicians, one chief petty officer, and one ensign. We were, except when sleeping and eating, locked up in one room together. It was an operation 24-7. I looked up the chief petty officer before we went aboard and said something like this, “Chief, I have been in the Navy nine years and I heard all kinds of four letter word sentences while sailing. We are going to be in one room together for the next six months. I want you to communicate to the sailors that there will be no profanity in that room for the next six months.” There was no foul language.
In counseling people, one of the first questions I ask is, “What is your mouth like?” Since 1956, I have been in Christian bookstores and other kinds of Christian work. I very seldom have heard any dirty words. It would be easy to think it is not there anymore because the words are not used around me.
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