There are all kinds of four-letter words in today’s vocabulary. Some of them I don’t care to repeat. Heck 🙂 , I find it difficult to understand why the use of them helps make someone culturally ‘relevant’.
As a faith-based life coach, I love passion and enthusiasm! However, I have a hard time with the use of four-letter punctuation to convey said passion and enthusiasm. As a writer, with all the wonderful words out there, why is four-letter punctuation the language of choice at times? If you want to be relevant, be articulate and don’t dot the i’s with a mud pie of four-letter punctuation.
Before you write me off as judgey, allow me to relate two recent instances that gave rise to this post.
Two prominent individuals openly bearing a Christian reputation chose to lower the bar on this one rather than keep it raised. Perhaps I’ve missed past four-letter punctuation from them – but in the case of one, I think not. The other surprised me since their published writing doesn’t reflect four-letter punctuation… unless it was edited out. Somehow I don’t think that is the case either.
In each instance I grimaced because I did not expect to hear it from them in their highly public persona. They had long presented a high standard in their speech and writing, respectively. Both of them well-known, not only in Christian circles but in the entertainment and literary fields as well.
It got me to thinking. Those of you acquainted with me know I often think about the heart of the matter.
In an attempt to understand where they were coming from, two things came to mind.
We all at one time or another are challenged by these same two influences in our personal Pie of Life. It’s even harder to resist these two influences when our ‘personal’ is lived out in such ‘public’ view.
Here’s what came floating into my thoughts:
- Pressure to not only stop doing something but to start doing the opposite
In the case of prominent individual #1, I had personally witnessed week after week their abiding hold to their Christian witness. Speaking forth ‘apples of gold in settings of silver’, they offered encouragement and acknowledged the Presence of God in the house – when it was appropriate. This time it changed.
You know when there are times you sense something but can’t prove it? This was one of those times.
Bearing a Christian witness offends some people. Then there are the people in charge who are afraid someone’s going to be offended. So in an effort to curb the ‘opportunity for offense,’ said Christian is instructed to put a sock in it with regard to the spiritual references. Furthermore, when you remove the sock to speak again, you must swing the pendulum to ‘acceptable’ by tossing in four-letter punctuation.
I am surmising (aka operating in the gift of suspicion). I admit that. However, with enough history in listening to this one speak, and observing some responses in the secular realm in which this one is currently operating, there is reason to believe pressure was brought to bear when the lights went down.
In this one’s case there was already a notable downplay of their spiritual enthusiasm. So be it. Sometimes that is appropriate.
It’s one thing to stop doing something, whether by request or by pressure from those higher up. It’s another thing to lower one’s own personal standard by engaging in the opposite of what you stand for. This one tossed in the unexpected four-letter punctuation and the crowd roared in response. That the audience’s value of what they considered relevant was met with such enthusiasm was disheartening.
I still admire this person. In fact, I empathize with the position in which they must find themselves. With nothing but grace for them, I hope their next gig finds them again artistically balanced on the high beam.
- The guard can come down when exhaustion overtakes emotions
Prominent individual #2 encourages and entertains many with their writing. Adored by millions, pedestal-itis must become wearing and personally consuming at times. Yet they’re called to a public platform by the One who gave them the gift in the first place.
In this case, social media provided another way to communicate with their audience. Worn-out and raw with emotion, they wrote a transparent and heart-felt message to their media friends. Caught up in reading and relating, the grimace came as I reached the last few sentences of their lengthy media post.
In what I believe was a spirit of camaraderie and celebration, I witnessed exhaustion overtake their emotions as they finally exhaled, with that last ragged breath, the four-letter punctuation of choice.
Once again, though I didn’t like it, I could understand. A state of extreme weariness sets the stage for succumbing to that last good nerve going twa-a-a-ng. It’s particularly at such times that our prayer should be, “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3 NIV)
Most of us have not been propelled to the public platform I have just described in these two vignettes. Yet as these two instances occurred so close together, they caught my attention and set me to thinking.
One’s Pie of Life can’t help but contain a slice related to ‘leading with your life‘. Recalling that we all are leading someone(s) – whether we are consciously aware of it or not – it bears repeating that our speech is much more persuasive and uplifting, even challenging in a healthy way, when it is seasoned with salt and not four-letter punctuation.
Though I don’t believe we’ll go to hell for saying or writing it, it’s the art of restraint that promotes respect and causes our words to glitter like golden apples in a cartful of crab apples. 
~ Nancy
Today’s grammar lesson brought to you by Grace when your bookends are pressure and exhaustion. I’m here to help (my kind of four-letter word!)
Photo Credit: Kozzi 26819312 – One Golden Apple in Row of Silver Apples
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