The words we use... My Yay! for the day.

The other day in Sunday School the teacher asked who doesn't ever swear. I didn't raise my hand because I didn't want to be put on the spot as he sometimes does that. It's true though, I don't swear and don't even think that way. We are judged by the words we use. While I was a little miffed at the question as it wasn't appropriate to put us on the spot like that, it does bring me to my YAY! for the day.

Some one I love deeply has decided to clean up their language for various reasons. They are too well educated to speak that way for one, but mostly to be a better example to family and friends.

So, how does one clean up their language? Well we all know people who will say things such as "freakin", or "flippin" in order to avoid dropping the F bomb. Like we all don't know what that means! The one I hear from the college kids is "shez" or "shezzy" as a replacement for the S word or "shoot" or "shucks". Clever? Not so much. Some of the old tried and true are "heck" to replace hell, gosh, goshdarn or golldarn to replace taking God's name in vain. The one that really get's my goat is the P word for anger. When I was growing up it was considered a swear word, and now I hear women use it that I would never have expected to hear it from. They will excuse it away saying it's just a little crude?? Really?
I have never forgotten a lesson I heard when I was younger regarding the use of these replacement words though. Most likely, if you are saying the replacement word, you are thinking the word you are trying to avoid saying and thus will slip on occasion. We are what we think and speak so how do we clean up both mind and mouth? It's funny that we even need to but society has lost much of it's civility in language and behavior. Anyway, it's something you can have fun with. There are so many marvelous words that can replace a crude or foul word that won't have you thinking the one you want to drop. Children appreciate this as well. Here's an example.
The school I used to substitute teach at has mostly Mexican students. They will gasp in horror if they hear someone calling someone else stupid, but have no problem saying OMG or dropping the F bomb. Not sure why that is, but it seems to be a cultural thing, and not a bad one to avoid calling someone stupid, even if they deserve it...:-). So I started telling the children that they should say, "Oh my goodness" because to say the OMG phrase is disrespectful to God. They had never thought of it that way, but the funny thing was that they started saying what I taught them, and then would tell their friends to do the same. It also snowballed into cleaning up other words in their vocabulary as well.
Here's my list of words or phrases I use when I get hurt or angry.....
Boo boos - Ouch! (Such an under used word), rats!, it hurts, it hurts it hurts!, wow! Here's a funny one.... oh swear word!

Angry - get's my grits, perturbed - ing, frustrating - ed, want to slap someone ( okay, maybe expressing violence isn't so good so I will work on that one), annoyed, furious ( a very good word for extreme anger), irritated, and not necessarily last or least, just plain ole' mad!

To exclaim - Oh wow!, how wonderful, marvelous, fabulous, horrible, awful, terrible, delightful, wicked, evil, charming... this list could go on and on.

So my YAY! for the day goes out to that special someone who is trying to improve. What words do you use to avoid swearing, that don't mirror the words you are are trying to avoid?