The Calumniator

After our first two-year-old started using curse words, my husband and I cleaned up our act.  We wanted to give the little dear - and all those that followed - a good example.  One of the other children was a rebel, in nearly every way a pre-schooler could be a rebel.  But his child had heard no curse words  at home.

After attending First Grade for a few days, Little Rebel was quietly playing with the blocks, building away.  All of a sudden, I heard a, "hell."  A few minutes later, "hell."  It was obvious to me that Little Rebel didn't know how to use these words but did know they weren't supposed to be used.  I thought if I ignored the problem, it would go away.

For a few days, all the "hells" and "dams" were not acknowledged by me.  I had to take the next step: I told Little Rebel that "hell" and "dam" were bad words and they were not to be said, ever again.  Little Rebel just continued as if I had never forbade the "hells" and "dams."  Then I actually had to threaten and punish: "I told you not to use those words, if you use them again, I'll wash your mouth out with soap!!"

Of course, Little Rebel had to test me with continuing, gleefully, it seemed, with the forbidden words.  So I marched the offending little person to the bathroom sink and commanded, "Stick out your tongue."  I took a bar of soap and rubbed it on the protruding tongue. Then we went our separate ways in the house.

This action cut down the bad words but did not eliminate them entirely.  Looking back, it's a wonder the other children weren't 'infected' with this and I ended up with a bigger problem.  From time to time, the bad words would emerge from Little Rebel and we did our soap on tongue ritual.  When Little Rebel was older, a confession was made, "I came to like the taste of soap!"

I was reminded of these incidents today when I accidentally stumbled on a new word, "Calumniator," in the Bible.  I had to check with the dictionary: "one who makes false and malicious statements, malign, libel, slander.  Being a calumniator is far more serious than the childish use of curse words.  This is so evil that one of the Ten Commandments states, "Do not bear false witness."

Sometimes if we gossip (which is uncharitable) about another, it's so easy to slip into stretching the truth so far it is no longer true, it is bearing false witness, LYING!  We may think that little lies are acceptable, but they are not.  At times, we have to show real courage in telling the truth.  But we can always tell the truth with charity!  We don't need to hit a person over the head with truth!  Be gentle!

Lord, You know it is excruciatingly difficult to ALWAYS tell the truth, but we need to do so.  Please give us the courage we need!