Hello,<\/p>\n
I want to say that I really do like your website.<\/p>\n
I have a question about my thoughts. I am a Christian. I obeyed the gospel last year. I previously cussed like a sailor, but I’ve gotten really good at watching my language. I constantly worry that I’ll mess up and say a foul word that is always on my mind. I don’t ever say them, but I hear them in my head. Any suggestions on how to overcome this trial?<\/p>\n\t
Congratulations on making Jesus Christ your Lord!<\/p>\n
There are two halves to changing. We often forget this because we are focused on removing sin from our lives. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts<\/em>” (Romans 13:14). Removing sin is only half the problem. We must also replace sinful behaviors with righteous ones.<\/p>\n “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear<\/em>” (Ephesians 4:29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When you catch yourself swearing in your head, stop a moment and consider what you can say that would actually benefit the people around you and then say it. It won’t be easy at first, especially in the heat of passion, but repeatedly exercising in this way will help you train yourself to think about situations in a different light.<\/p>\n “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. \u00a0So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you<\/em>” (Colossians 3:8-13).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul gives us a roadmap to how to change. You put aside abusive speech and then focus on learning what God wants you to become. The more you learn from your Bible, the more your thought patterns will change — not overnight but over time. The goal is to become more like Christ. One of the big problems with profanity is that people lose control when they get angry. Thus, we learn to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Instead of holding grudges, we learn to forgive. These things are easier to obtain when we spend time actually listening to other people and trying to see things from their perspective. “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls<\/em>” (James 1:19-21).<\/p>\n Finally, learn to put up a fight with your thoughts. When you catch yourself thinking of profanity, force yourself to stop and reword the thought in terms that don’t contain foul words. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you<\/em>” (James 4:7).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello, I want to say that I really do like your website. I have a question about my thoughts. I am a Christian. I obeyed the gospel last year. I previously cussed like a sailor, but I’ve gotten really good at watching my language. I constantly worry that I’ll mess up and say a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[492],"class_list":["post-33719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-profanity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28288,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/obscenity-and-profanity\/","url_meta":{"origin":33719,"position":0},"title":"Obscenity and Profanity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Marc Hinds I was ten years old in 1982 when I went and saw Steven Spielberg's science-fiction blockbuster, E. T. It was the first time I remember hearing foul language. To make matters worse, it was a teenager in the movie who said it. While I was shocked, my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/shock-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47942,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-sinful-to-listen-to-a-song-against-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":33719,"position":1},"title":"Is it sinful to listen to a song against Christmas?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it sinful to listen to a song against Christmas? The song does not speak against the\u00a0true meaning of Christmas (the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ) and rather speaks against Christmas traditions, such as eggnog, Christmas trees, gift-giving, etc. The song also uses some bad language. It also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-believe-in-god-and-not-believe-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":33719,"position":2},"title":"Can a Christian believe in God and not believe in prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a Christian believe in God but not believe in prayer? I'm a member of the church but I don't believe in prayer? How do I overcome that? Answer: Let's work backward. You say you don't believe in prayer, yet the Bible says that Jesus taught, \"Then He spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-does-the-bible-suggest-swearing-is-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":33719,"position":3},"title":"Where does the Bible suggest swearing is a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Where does the Bible suggest swearing is a sin? And how does it define what words or type of words are to be considered sinful to say? We all understand that taking God's name in vain is a sin. We are told this in the Bible directly. But I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25348,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-baptism-of-the-holy-spirit-give-you-the-power-to-fight-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":33719,"position":4},"title":"Does the baptism of the Holy Spirit give you the power to fight sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! Does the baptism of the Holy Spirit give you the power to fight sin? Does the baptism of the Holy Spirit give you the power to overcome sin? Answer: Peter was baptized with the Holy Spirit: \"Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9935,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-post-memes-that-contain-bad-language\/","url_meta":{"origin":33719,"position":5},"title":"Should we post memes that contain bad language?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been talking to someone about the Facebook memes they post that contains offensive language. I was telling them that it's not right as a Christian, but he says things like, \"Well, sometimes you have to to get the point across\" and \"Just ignore that part.\" He doesn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}