by Steve Hale
"But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness" ( 2 Timothy 2:16, NKJV).
My Junior year in High School, we got a new football coach. He was a
member of the church, and hated profanity. He had two rules about it:
1. The first violation was an hour with him after practice
2. The second violation you were kicked off the team.
Of course, we had two teammates that had to test him. Immediately, he said: "You two spend an hour with me after practice." And, his practices were tough! Drill-after-drill, hitting, and run, run, run! We could barely make it to the showers, apd had to "peel" off our pads.
As we came out of the locker room, you could see those two guys still running! Then I heard these unforgettable words: "Okay, crawl, crawl! You talk like a dog, you can walk like a dog!" These were "bear crawls" that these two guys did around the field.
The next day, one of these fellows and I had Study Hall together. Profanity was so ingrained in his vocabulary. But, what was so funny was, his sentences were no longer smooth, but broken, and his tone was soft, I shy, and suspicious! When he came to the place he had usually been profane, he stopped, and would look around to be sure our coach wasn't there!
Now, maybe our coach isn't looking over your shoulder, but the Lord is! Do you talk like a dog?