I Swear!

I am very pleased with the Sunday School teacher that the kids are sitting under right now. She's a mother of 2 grown kids and approaches parenting with eternal purposes in mind which made/makes her a very forthright parent. This translates into her being a very forthright teacher on Sundays.

In past weeks they've talked over the 10 commandments, which caused my kids to ask her what adultery was. She didn't shy away from giving them a very tactful definition. They dug into the deeper implications behind the commandments as well.

Ruth's soccer team had played a very rough opposing soccer team Saturday (a la Real Madrid) and one of the girls on the other team had cussed at Ruth on the field. Their teacher on Sunday had asked them about their week and Ruth had brought up the game. This led them to discuss cussing and the meanings behind the words we use.

The Sunday School teacher made an extremely astute observation. All our cuss words fall into two categories: those directly offensive to God, those directly offensive to what He's made.

If you consider the meanings behind some of our cuss words:

sh**- poop
bi***- female dog
d***-to curse
f***- an intimate action with your spouse
c***- female anatomy
h***- place of torment
d***- male anatomy
p***- to urinate or be drunk
a**- donkey or ones rear end
various racial slurs which I won't list
There are also many, many more that predominantly have to do with bits of anatomy.

It's very interesting that people still damn others or use the word "God" to be profane when many of them don't believe that He exists.
As we've become a more atheistic/agnostic culture, wouldn't it make sense that people would find man-made objects something to be cussed about?

You never hear anyone stub their toe and say, "Macbook Pro!" or "Sailboats!" or "Pants!".
Along the same line, no one ever says, "Buddha!" or "Dali Lama!"

We still choose to wound the people around us by referencing God or predominantly the creatures made in his image, mankind. We insult their design both in anatomy and race.

This, I believe, is a result of what Paul talks about in Romans 1:18-19, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth by unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.


I've long been a proponent of the alternative frustration words...here are some that the kids and I use:
Buckets
Frack (Used in Battlestar Galactica)
Darn
Freaking
Son of biscuit
Cripes
Blimey

Now, growing up, our parents ran a very verbally clean house, so clean that there were words that they were not familiar with. So, it was quite a shock to my sister and I when we realized one word that our family had been affectionately using to say, "Don't be silly" was actually a term that was a sex toy! (Psst, it was the d**** word)

I think we confuse some people because we fully support our kids knowing correct anatomical terms for private body parts, and yet we are against cussing. We give them the correct terminology for the privates because we believe that they're not shameful parts of the body, but parts that are to be correctly understood and explained to the glory of God.

I could go on and on about this topic, but sufficed to say, her observance has me thinking about the reasons that all cultures use the terms they do as cuss words.

What do you think? Do you cuss? (I have to confess, I'm not cuss word free) Do you have a good alternative word?