#$&@(^*!

Language has been a recent topic of discussion in our house. My boys are starting to realize that there are worse words out there than “shut-up” and “stupid.” We have identified that there are words that dishonor God and words that dishonor other people. There are also words that are impolite. Words that dishonor God and other people are usually pretty clear…we do not want to use them in our family. (However, they may slip out from time to time when Mommy is driving in traffic and/or drops something.) Impolite words, however, are not so black and white. It is not easy to teach discretion and we cannot monitor and/or criticize every word that pops out of their mouths...we need to carefully choose our battles.

The other day, Son #1 came home from sports camp and said, "I suck at baseball." It was a new word that he had learned at camp and he was trying it on for size. While I would have preferred that he had chosen a different describing word, it really does not fall into the dishonoring category. In my opinion, it is more of an impolite word. On the scale of 1 to 10, I am not sure where I would put it. Would I want him to say it to Grandma or in Sunday School? No. With his friends? Maybe. Is this a battle that I am willing to fight with him? Probably not. In the end, I decided to let it go...sometimes the best course of action is inaction.