Last week I was playing kickball and realized that it is somewhat a reflex for me to quietly (sometimes not so quietly) curse when I play poorly. Not an attractive trait, I know, but I’m working on it.

A bad kick is followed by “sh*t.”
A bad pass is followed by “sh*t.”
A missed catch is followed by “sh*t.”

Perhaps I just need to play a little better! When I began cursing at kickball on Wednesday night it rolled over into the following days and affected my mood negatively. It happened subtly, but it happened. When I was in high school and college poor language wouldn’t have phased me – it was the culture that surrounded me and I was certainly guilty of choosing poor language as well. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it and I know many people feel it’s not a big deal to curse, but let me show you this from another perspective.

This weekend while I was at a retreat, a thought came over me that will hopefully keep me from cursing in general. While I sat there and prayed, I was thinking about the things that have come out of my mouth that are less than desirable to hear, let alone say. I was thinking about the fact that I had been cursing quite a bit over the last week. Then I moved to the present and thought about the prayer and praise to God that was coming out of my mouth at that very moment… stark contrasts, but both from the same mouth. I thought to myself, “this is the same mouth. Do I really curse and then use the same mouth to talk to our God?” Gross.

God does not deserve that. I do not deserve that. We do not deserve that. Let us keep in mind, that our mouths – no matter who we are speaking to – are the same mouths in which we speak to God.