If You Had to Eat Your Words, Would They Make You Sick?

by John Bytheway
September 17, 2002

When my friend Dave Hyde was in high school, he had a chance to earn some extra credit in his biology class. All he had to do was eat some deer meat to earn five points. Dave ate it. Rattlesnake meat was worth seven points. Dave gulped it. Then the teacher pulled out some caviar (fish eggs). All Dave had to do was swallow a spoonful for another ten points. Dave swallowed it. These tasty delights were followed by some worm cookies and cow brain casserole, but the big bonus was yet to come. Worth twenty-five points, it consisted of a jar of dead ants.
"All the students started to squirm and make disgusting sounds when the teacher brought out the jar," Dave recalled. "I was the only one to go to the front, and the teacher said, 'Okay Hyde, tilt your head back and open your mouth wide.' He then took a heaping spoonful of dead ants and poured them into my mouth. He then physically closed my mouth, and I began to munch and crunch. Halfway through my chewing, the class began to make me laugh. My lips separated and I think the class could see all these ant legs and body parts all over my teeth. I remember the taste as being pretty bitter. My grade moved up pretty dramatically that day. I only wish my social life with the ladies had. For some strange reason, it didn't. My biology class was just before lunch, and someone asked if I had already had my lunch because it looked like I had a piece of pepper caught in my teeth. 'No, it's probably just an ant head.'"
Dave ate all that stuff on Tuesday, May 13. They pumped his stomach on Wednesday, May 14 (just kidding). Yuck. I think I'd rather get a bad grade than eat leftovers from the biology lab. Now here's another thought: What if your science teacher said you had to eat your words? Are the words that come out of your mouth in bad taste? Are there things you say that are foul and gross? If you had to eat your words, would they make you sick? If so, then maybe the old saying—"You are what you eat"—is true.

You Don't Say . . .

The Lord expects you, as an Aaronic Priesthood holder, to control your tongue. You can't hold the power of God and be a potty mouth at the same time. President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
Most of you boys who are here tonight are prospective missionaries. It is as wrong for you to use foul language as it would be for a missionary because you also hold the priesthood. You have authority to act in the name of God. Remember that it is the same voice which prays to the Lord on the one hand and which, on the other hand, when in the company of friends, may be inclined so to speak language foul and filthy. The two kinds of voices are incompatible ("Take Not the Name of God in Vain," Ensign, November 1987, 47).
Some of you are, or one day will be, priests. President Hinckley reminds you that you have the same mouth Monday through Friday that you have on Saturday and Sunday. How can you pronounce the prayer on the sacrament one day and swear at school the next day? James said it like this: "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be" (James 3:10).
Profanity is not macho, manly, or mature. It's low-class, low-level language and, like it or not, people will judge you by the words you speak. When they judge you, they judge the Church and the priesthood as well. Wouldn't it be sad if a few of us gave a horrible impression about the rest of us? And what about the impression you make about yourself? They say that "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." That's true when you're learning to respond to bad things said about you. But your own words, coming out of your own mouth, have great potential to hurt you—they tell the whole world all about you. Harmful words not only include swear words but also substitute swear words, or words that are vulgar and show very little class. So make sure the words that come out of your mouth represent the best of what you are within.

Put in a Good Word for Yourself

Bad language can give you a bad reputation, but it works the other way too. Good language and good conversation can help you develop a good reputation. I've met young people who simply refuse to curse and swear. After a while, their friends notice, and their friends stop swearing too. Or, when others start to swear, their friends say, "Hey, don't talk that way around him." President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
Cultivate the art of conversation. It is a tremendous asset. For me there is nothing more delightful than to listen in on the conversation of a group of bright and happy young people such as you. Their dialogue is witty. It is scintillating. It sparkles and is punctuated by laughing even when dealing with serious subjects. But, I repeat, it is not necessary in conversation to profane the name of Deity or to use salty and salacious language of any kind. And let me add that there is plenty of humor in the world without resorting to what we speak of as dirty jokes ("True to the Faith," Ensign, June 1996, 6).
We admire professional athletes. They can run and catch and shoot and pivot and dribble and make it all look easy. They have remarkable control of their bodies. It's too bad, however, that more athletes, and more people in general, don't have better control of their tongues. Controlling your tongue is so difficult that the scriptures speak of those with tongue control as "perfect." James said, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body" (James 3:2).
In other words, if you discipline yourself to control your tongue, you can also "bridle," or control, your whole body. As a priesthood holder myself, I would like to share with you two scriptures and two quotations that really help me control my words.
Here's the first scripture: "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matthew 12:36). I can't even remember all the stupid things I've said over the years, but it appears they'll all come out in the judgment unless I repent.
Here's the second one (and this is probably the scariest scripture I've ever read): "For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence" (Alma 12:14).
Controlling the tongue isn't just about swearing or cursing. It's also about backbiting and gossiping. Cutting people down behind their back dishonors the priesthood, and it shows a lack of control. You've seen the two scriptures, now here are the two quotations I mentioned that have really helped me.
Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds;You can call back your kites, but you can't call back your words."Careful with fire" is good advice, we know;"Careful with words" is ten times doubly so.Thoughts unexpressed will often fall back dead.But God Himself can't kill them, once they are said!(Will Carleton, "The First Settler's Story," cited in Boyd K. Packer, "Balm of Gilead," Ensign, November 1987, 16-17)
This poem reminds me that even if I apologize for something I said, the memory of it will remain in the minds of those who heard me say it. So it's better to control your tongue in the first place. Here's the second quotation I really like (someday I'm going to have it framed and placed above my family's dinner table):
Great minds talk about ideas.Average minds talk about things.Small minds talk about people.(Anonymous)
The people I respect and admire most rarely talk about other people. If they do, it's always in a respectful, careful way. Instead, they prefer to talk about ideas, usually gospel ideas. That's the kind of dinner conversation that's enlightening, sometimes even testimony building. It's so much different than chewing someone up between mouthfuls.
The next time you're around the people you respect and admire most, watch them closely, and make mental notes of what they talk about. If they had to eat their words, would their meal be hard to swallow like high school floor sweepings? Or would it be sweet and delicious like a gourmet meal?