I ride my bike around a lot, and I have a lot of time to think about various things when I'm miles away from town riding up and down the Panhandle's incredible straight roads. Today I got to thinking about how when I was little it was really a big deal, in school and at home and everywhere, to not call names and not say hurtful stuff to people. In high school it seems that virtually everyone has forgotten about that. Every day I hear, and say, words like faggot, retard, idiot, and other things that I'm not gonna write down. It's like it isn't even a big deal anymore to be constantly trying to cut other people down. Almost everybody in my school is guilty of it, myself included.
Almost every day I'll either witness or be a part of a verbal battle that has more curse words than most R rated movies. And we do it right in front of teachers too. I can only think of 2 teachers who will even say anything when two students start cussing each other out right in front of them. What happened? In second grade I'd get in big trouble just for calling somebody dumb or weird. Now I can yell down the hall at somebody, proclaiming them to be a bleeping bleep bleep or something and not even get a reproach from a teacher.
And maybe it actually hurts that annoying kid's feelings when I hurl expletive laden insults at him every day. Maybe it doesn't, but still, I'm not putting a very Christ-like image if I talk like that.
I'm certain that I've read scripture dealing with cussing and name calling and the like, but being the scatterbrained teen that I am, I can't bring any verses to mind. If I run across any I'll put it in the comments.
So anyway that's all I've got for today, so when I head to school tomorrow I'm gonna try to do like my mom says and if I don't have anything nice to say I won't say anything at all.