“Hallowed Be thy Name”
Don't Take It In Vain
If a designated piece of fabric can be called the American Flag and be saluted for what it symbolizes to us in greatness, and if a collection of words on paper can be called The Bible and be accorded with holy sanctity, then the name of God must ever be Hallowed and held aside for only prayer and sacred reference. This we proclaim when we say this beloved prayer and expect to reap blessings from it.
My mother taught us that though cussing was very bad for us, and those around us, that far worse than cussing is taking the Lord’s name in vain. Not only does this break a commandment but it goes in the face of the Lord’s Prayer, the most loved and sacred set of healing words ever written. “Hallowed be thy Name”. Words have meaning, whatever meaning the language assigns them, and we had better respect our language.
Hearing God’s name taken in vain has had a traumatic effect on me since I was eight years old. This is because of a very powerful life-impacting experience, like an awakening you might say. My life and my relationships would be forever affected by an experience I had at the age of eight that looms ever vivid in my memory.
I’ve always had trouble hearing God’s name taken in vain, especially with the “d” word because it seems like a death curse with an irrevocable effect on everyone and everything within hearing distance. Since it is difficult not to repeat in your mind what you hear audibly, my technique to prevent that from happening was to always delete the bad part and replace it with something good such as in “God is Love.” I would always turn the curse into a prayer in my own mind when someone would take God’s name in vain.
Photos by Rollin Coxe creator of Clean Up Our Language
