Guest Devotional-- Stacy Heckman

My 4-years old is constantly bringing home new vocabulary words that I wish I could magically erase from his mind. Most of them are harmless at this age, although one phrase he has recently picked up is, “Oh my God!” He excitedly blurted this out the other day when he was playing with his Matchbox cars. I instinctively corrected him saying, “Payton, let’s try using ‘oh my goodness’ instead.” I’m not sure he understood why I was correcting him. And then I thought, This is such a common phrase in today’s language… why am I correcting him? Interestingly enough, my Bible study last week had an entire day focused on this exact topic. I thought it might be a good refresher for all of us to think about this simple phrase that is uttered so frequently in everyday conversations.

First, let’s start with the basics: In Proverbs 9:10 it talks about a way that we can receive wisdom, and it says, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” The term “fearing the Lord” can sound intimidating, but really it means that we revere Him and show Him great respect. It means we hold His knowledge and truth in higher regard than our own.

My Bible study put it this way, “God is our father and we should speak His name. But we should do so with fear or reverence – never causally or crassly. We should guard ourselves against using God’s name without respect or “in vain,” as the Third Commandment says. God is not a stand in for ‘wow!’”

While “Oh my God” is not seen as profanity in today’s society, wouldn’t it be refreshing if everyone revered God so much that His name would only be used in respectful, honoring references? I encourage you to give it a try this week and only use God’s name in the most loving and respectful ways. See if it changes your perspective on the power and wisdom that is behind His glorious name.