Language

Are you more careful about what you say on Sundays?

When I was in high school, for some kind of English class project, one of my classmates did a simple study on the use of profanities among the students. Again, I'm not entirely sure what the point of the project was. I can't even remember what my project was about, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't about curse words.

Through the use of her surveys, she determined that people swear less on Sundays than they do any other day of the week. I think she found that people curse more on Mondays than any other day. I don't have the statistics to back this up. And I'm not sure that there have been any truly official studies on this subject. It's just something I was thinking about.

I'm careful about the things that come out of my mouth every day. Particularly when I'm around other people. I'm careful about a lot of things regarding my temper when I'm around others. But I'm more careful about my language, because as my college friends would readily agree, language is the first thing to go when I get fed up.

Many nights in college, several of us would crowd around an X-Box and play Halo for endless hours. We would just do a four-way split-screen death-match that would start off calm. But then Dereck, who owned the system and played very regularly, would begin to systematically pick each of us off one by one with a sniper rifle. He'd hide in the shadow of a rock high up on a cliff and just take us down over and over again. Things were not so calm by this point. We'd all start shouting obscenities at each other. Not that we truly meant any of those harsh words, but it was how we released our frustrations. I'm not saying it was right, it's just how it happened.

Often times, when I find myself alone, I revert back to that sort of anger. I get frustrated when I'm behind a slow driver and say things that I would never let that slow driver hear me say. But I say them nonetheless. I'm not saying it's right, it's just how it happens.

Most of the time I feel guilty for letting some of these words escape my lips. But there are times I try to rationalize. Why should I feel bad for saying some of the things I'm saying? At some point someone decided that there were certain words that were inappropriate to say in polite society. Again, I'm not saying it's right, it's just how it happens. Sometimes.

The things that come out of our mouths are a reflection of what's in our hearts. So what does that say about the condition of my heart?