The Day Is At Hand:
No person is an island. We all live in this world. It only takes one child to prove that what comes out of a child's mouth at times has nothing to do with the parents. Sometimes what they say is a repeat of what the parents have said in private, and then again sometimes not.
On occasion it was humorous when we would hear our children's take on what was said. For instance when our son was really digging in to finish a project, and his dad said, "Look at him, he's really going to town." A bit later we overheard him telling his brother, "I get to go to town."
Our youngest son perfected the technique of odd statements that would randomly come out of his mouth. I doubt people believed us when we (his parents) denied any knowledge of where he got his ideas. I don't remember any one incident that triggered my words, "I don't know where he gets this stuff, he just opens his mouth and things come out." I just remember it happening.
It wasn't bad language, or anything shocking. Some of it was truth, and some of it was just funny.
Back in the early 1980s a church sister was commenting on something she had read in a magazine article about language. At this time I'm unsure if it was the author, or the author reporting on another person, but the article stated that it was a goal that in a number of years they were hoping to influence American culture toward the acceptance of vulgar language as common.
She and I both agreed that the language appeared to be heading in that direction already at that time. She has long since passed away, and indeed even at the time of her passing the common acceptance of vulgar language had increased exponentially.
I wonder how and why so many people can't make a sentence any more without using cuss words. As a writer and one who has done critiquing for other (Christian) writers I can tell you that foul language doesn't equal good or powerful writing or communication. In one manuscript the scene was of someone being 'shot', and it hurt like 'hell'. The first time she used that comparison I was taken aback. Most publishers of Christian content won't accept that language, but I ignored it. A few pages later she used it again. And I thought, whoa, wait a minute...
Hell is a place. It's a noun, not an adjective or an adverb. So, hell doesn't describe. My comment to her was—you need a real description here. How do you mean it hurt? Did it burn? Agony? Flaming pain running through the body? Torture? Put a real description in here.
I have Face Book Friends who claim Christ as their savior. They believe not only are we in the last days here on earth, but WE ARE IN THE LAST MOMENTS here on earth.
Now, I'm not here to proclaim I know when Christ will return, but I know He will. I don't want to be like the evil servant in this parable:
Mattew 24:48 "But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord tarrieth; 49) and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken; 50) the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not,"
Jesus has not revealed the exact moment and hour of his coming. He tells us to be ready. Put on the wedding garments of salvation and be ready. Live as if He is coming immediately and it won't make any difference if Jesus comes in our lifetime, or in the next generation.
We need to be influencing our friends and neighbors for good, and in a country where well over half of the population claims to know Jesus as their savior, how can our morals (as evidenced by behavior and language) have sunk to such a low?
As an older woman in this generation I have taken to speaking up when I have an opportunity. I don't get in stranger's faces, but I try to speak gently to friends and family. To say my piece with a smile. As shocking as it is to someone from my generation, many don't know what they're doing/saying is wrong. Because others don't speak up many don't know that those things are offensive.
