Oh *$%&!!!

Every morning I carpool a group of teenagers to early morning seminary. It's kind of a mini-Sunday School class for our youth that are in high school. Dedicated and very generous members of the church slave away, unpaid mind you, to give the youth a little shot of inspiration in the morning before they are thrown to the mercy of real life.

I enjoyed seminary as a teenager myself. It really did help to be reminded during the week that Heavenly Father was still interested in who I was as a pimply faced, emotionally strung out little girl.

So. While the kids are trying to keep their eyes open and appear interested, I sit in the foyer and read, play solitaire on my itouch or chat with other parents until it is time to shuttle the kids over to the high school. It is a labor of love and the kids are hilarious.

This morning some kids were skipping out early and as they shuffled down the back corridor, I heard one of them bump into the wall and exclaim.."oh..no"! What he really said started with an "s" and rhymed with "stick".

I giggled because I knew who it was.

Now I'm not going to go and tattle to his mother, but I am going to razz him a little.

It reminded me of my own little rebellious stage as a teen. I tried experimenting with expletives for a while. I was horrible at it and people would laugh at me because I didn't understand the meanings or the poetry involved to craft a clever swearing experience.

I even PRAYED and said some bad words!

Mom and Dad were gone on a temple trip. They were traveling with friends from Pittsburgh to the Washington D.C. temple and we were babysitting ourselves. There were five or six of us at the time. Any-hoo it had been a pretty contentious day. Constant power struggles between all of us. But at the end of the day we had our family prayer. I said the prayer and felt impressed to add in the phrase: "please Heavenly Father help us to not b***h and moan at each other".

I was sincere. I really thought we needed that. Until my brother crabbed at me afterward. It seemed totally natural to say it. Dad said it all the time to us. "I don't want to hear any more b*#&*ing and moaning from you guys". I had no CLUE that it was inappropriate.

Oh well. I know God could manage the translation. We ended up living through the experience and I swear, (ha ha), I felt more strength to be kind until my parents returned. My expletive laced prayer was answered.