“You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-mouthed? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can be your damnation.” Matthew 12:34

Okay, so I’m going to step on some toes here. People!! Watch your mouths!!! Hear me out… Living for Christ means He should be found in everything you do. How are you able to successfully minister to people if you cannot even break your own cursing habit? Now, don’t get me wrong, I used to have the very same cursing habit. I used to (and I often hear other people) justify my (or their) habit(s) with “it’s 20whatever, the world is different now. It’s not realistic to live that way.” Um… hello?? Where does it say this in the Bible?

I have loved Jesus my entire life. However, there is a difference in loving Jesus and living for Him. Wanting Him to come through every word and action. Wanting to embody Him. When I realized this change in my heart, one of the first changes I made (among other things) was my cursing habit. And let me tell you something… it was so easy. My passion and need to minister to people was much greater than my want to “fit in” or “sound cool” or whatever it is that gets us to develop these habits.

And it’s not just the words we use, but it’s what we talk about. I’m just not interested in talking about people or making ugly jokes. The words that spill out of your mouth are a direct representation of where your heart is. I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to be ministered to by someone that can’t hold a normal conversation without cursing or go a day without speaking ill about another child of God.

For me, breaking the actual habit was the easy part. I stopped listening to vulgar music and it happened like that. The hard part was getting laughed in the face when I told people “I stopped cursing.” When those people stop laughing and start listening, they’ll take it serious. If you can get people to listen, and I mean REALLY listen, you can get people to believe.

So, if you’ve made it to the end of this and I got you to listen, let me ask you this… where is your heart at?

“Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” 1 Timothy 4:12

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart will bring forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from which fills the heart.” Luke 6:45

“If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.” James 1:26