College- A First Year Look-Back

My whole life I have attended a private Christian school. Now I am in a public college that is not Christian ordained. One thing that has surprised me the most is the way people act. I knew that it was not good, but I never new it would be so bad. I have had quite an experience there.

One thing that comes to mind is the profanity. After walking around for about five minutes, I will have heard the majority of English curse words. People have no control over their tongues. Some are so bad that they will string together multiple words that make the sentence simply a mass of vulgarity. To speak with profanity simply shows a loss of control, a small vocabulary, and rudeness.

It is not only the curse words; the students are very open on sexuality, as well as illegal and explicit activity. They have no embarrassment and find it appalling when some one else sees their actions as immoral, unordinary, or unacceptable. I have also met those who boast of their Christianity, yet they will turn and speak of sinful activity and speak with profanity. When I see that occur, I seem to ponder what the book of James has written on speech.

“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.[1]”

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.[2]”

However, in James 3: 8 it states that no one is perfect and no one has complete control of their tongue. “But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” I also keep this verse in mind. These people are simply lost in sin, and the same goes for other people and different sins. I also realize that I am not perfect and could use some work in this area. Some words have become acceptable that are still quite strong in flavor. This is something Christian’s need to keep in mind, such as King David did. “I said, ‘I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence.[3]’” We should also strive to be “slow to speak[4]”, or in other words, think before speaking and word things politely. It is also needed to endow our tongues with wisdom. A trait of a righteous man is that “The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just.[5]”

I tend to notice those people who talk with an idiom that does not use profanity. It just seems to be very few. Those people I remember and they have a place in my memory because they were different. However, those of vulgarity seem to escape my memory as fast as they entered. Speaking with wisdom and control is something every Christian needs to work on and continue to work with.

[1] James 3: 6
[2] James 3:9-12
[3] Psalms 39: 1
[4] James 1:19
[5] Psalms 37:35