This summer at LECC we’ve been using scripture from James for testing our spirituality with the temptation test, the anger test, and the faith test. Last Sunday we delved into the speech test with our member Clint who used to have what’s known in slang as potty mouth.
Clint’s father cursed, and Clint grew up doing the same. His tour in the Marines made his bad language even worse.
“It was an exquisite training ground for curse words,” he said. “That’s the way we spoke to each other—dirty nouns, verbs and even prepositional phrases.”
Back in civilian life, even when he became a parent, he didn’t realize his language was wrong.
“My boys heard it all,” he now laments. “I didn’t try to curb my verbiage until I chose to walk with God in 2015.”
That’s when his wife Mistie came into his life, and he learned that words matter to God.
Bible verses like Ephesians 4:29 truly hit home with him.
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Clint’s wake-up moment happened when Roger Little, my now deceased father, asked him to lead a meditation. “Sir,” I told him. “I’d be embarrassed.”
“Right then I knew I needed to do something different,” he said.
His resolve was further solidified when he attended a big, busy party with people he didn’t know and observed that they enjoyed themselves without cursing.
He started by asking forgiveness of anyone he’d wronged, and then he tried to forgive himself. He used clean language with his coworkers and noticed that they too cut down on dropping the F bomb and other obscenities.
No longer embarrassed to talk in front of the congregation, every Sunday he leads the prayer for the list compiled during Sunday school and Wednesday night services. He is living proof of James 3:2, which says, “Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.”
Watching Clint grow in his faith and spread his energizer blend of cool and crazy among our grateful congregation has been this pastor’s pleasure.
If you curse, please consider that James 3:6 calls the tongue “a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself…. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.”
If you don’t pass God’s speech test, do as Clint did.
“I started praying a lot, and I’m still going to automobile college,” he said, referring to the many faith-focused things available on You-Tube.
A high point in his trip from profane to polite was baptizing a Marine buddy who chose to follow his example.
If you want a success story like this for yourself, and if you don’t already go to another church, come to LECC—a congregation of imperfect people who joyfully worship a perfect God.
Small group Bible study starts at 10 a.m., worship at 11 a.m., and Wednesday night activities for all ages at 6:30 p.m. at 415987 Highway 9, Eufaula. We’d love to see you!
God Bless You!
Jeremy Little, Minister
