Pure Speech in Children

I am a moderator of two online parenting groups of ladies. Recently, one of the moms was lamenting the potty mouth of her young son. The other mothers gave her sympathy and advice. As I wrote my own reply, I suddenly had a revelation.

I had inherited these groups after being on them for a couple of years, and as a Christian, the impure speech of some of these women bothered me a lot. I added a "no profanity" rule to the guidelines. I have sent private messages to some of the ladies, pointing them to the guidelines, and warning them that if they did not clean up their posts, the posts would be deleted. And I wonder how many times a parent will react negatively to their child using potty words, when potty words spill from their own mouths? Cr*p, sh*t, and s*ck are common words today, and it hurts my heart very much to hear them, especially when a child is around. Many times I have asked an adult, "Do you have any idea what that word means?"

The Bible tells us in Matthew 12: 34-35 "Whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart."

How can we condemn a little child for the words he uses, if we use words that are just as bad? If we allow them to see television shows and movies that have these words in them? If we allow them to be around people who use these words, without our asking them to not say those things in front of us? It isn't fair to punish the child for using impure speech, if we, by default, have taught them to the child.

Any behavior we allow our child to be exposed too is likely to be demonstrated by the child. Do you allow the child to watch cartoons where the characters burp, pass gas or walk around in their underwear? Then don't blame the child for imitating that behavior. It isn't fair.

Proverbs 22:6 encourages us to train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it. Let your little child be a little child. Keep them away from impure things. That includes many movies, television shows, schools and other places where they will hear and see things that you do not want them to imitate. If you are not strong enough to remove these things from their lives and yours, then take responsibility for their less than stellar behavior, because you have taught it to them.

One of the best things you can do for your child is to build good character. And to do that, you must have it yourself. Our speech is a sure sign of what's in our hearts. As parents, let us purify our own hearts, so we can train our children.