What's In A Word?

 Words are funny things, but suffice it to say, they are just words. You make of them whatever you will. Many years ago now, I had the opportunity to travel to Germany several times and I learned something on those trips that has changed me ever since. What changed is the way I listened to people and more importantly, the way I judged them. I'm talking expressly about the words that we use and how we use them. We in America, especially in certain regions of the USA have determined that certain words are swear words and therefore sinful. But only "those" words, because we say so. 

When I was in Germany it was normal to hear what we call "the S word" used to describe going to the bathroom. 

Nothing vulgar about it. It is considered a bodily function and that is how you state it there. But if you said that here... people would have you going to Hell on the next southbound train. But mind you that it is perfectly acceptable to say "take a crap/poop." Somehow those words are "safe" in our society.  There are MANY such words that we have deemed to be sinful and we will judge a person's soul in a heartbeat. Isn't it amazing that to say "I'm pissed" is a ticket to Hell, when 99% of the people don't even understand the origin or meaning of the word but assume it has something to do with emptying your bladder, which it does not. 

A while back a woman jumped all over me and then trashed my name as she gossiped about me for saying that something pissed me off, when her response to me was (and I quote) "Gosh darn it Darrell, don't you know that is a freaking cuss word?"  Now let that sink in. 

She  may have used substitute words, but those words with her attitude were so clear that she was using "Christianized cussing." I may stand alone in this, but that type of language is FAR, far worse than what I said.  Another person who I'm close to, a person who is what I would consider a devout Christian frequently uses the word "freakin" where others would commonly use the "F-bomb."  Somehow that is OK? I contend that it is the mindset, the heart, and how things are said that makes a word a "cuss word" or not.

I think we would do well to stop trying to pick the splinters out of the eyes of others when there are logs in our own eyes. I'm not justifying using vulgar language, but I am saying that we need to listen to ourselves much more before we shred someone else's reputation over something like a word. The Bible speaks very clearly about that type of behavior.