giving up cursing for lent

i decided to give up cursing and taking the lord's name in vain for lent, and my fiancé joined me. 

when i first had the idea, i told him a story about a birthday sleepover i had in middle school where my dad gently admonished my friends for taking the lord's name in vain by asking if he heard us praying out there. one friend claimed she "saved us" by immediately breaking out into a—very obviously fake—prayer. 

i didn't think anything of the story, but then my fiancé later suggested we actually do that ourselves, for real: whenever we catch ourselves taking the lord's name in vain, we turn it into an earnest prayer. 

i gotta say, what a wonderful idea. without it, it feels a little flat to accidentally say it then not have a way to correct it. we don't really have a way to correct the cursing except to replace the word with a non-curse word, and that's not as transformatively satisfying as actually redirecting the exclamatory energy into a plea for help or protection or thanks. 

it also forces us to articulate exactly what we're feeling in the moment that made us swear in the first place. for example, a car in front of us was driving erratically, and i vehemently exhaled, "jesus!" then i realized the exclamation was an expression of my fear for our and the other driver's safety, and transitioned into petitioning for an intercession on behalf of all involved, that we all get to where we're going safely. 

it feels good to work towards curbing the habit of being careless with my words. i tend to be pretty good at code-switching into non-cursing environments, but otherwise, i curse too much for my liking. most times it's not even warranted, just a habit that has gotten away from me. 

i'd especially like to work on this habit before we have kids. growing up, my parents very rarely cursed around me and my siblings, and as mentioned above, also did not approve of the lord's name being taken in vain. i'd like to set a similar example for my future kids, not just because i think it's nice to do, but because i think they are powerful words that are best not diluted and thrown around carelessly. 

the past few years, i've been grokking the humanity of my parents, and indeed of all parents. i'm blessed to have parents that love and feel called to the vocation of parenthood, but that also means i have taken for granted that "parents" are a certain way, simply by nature rather than out of active and intentional choice. 

i'd like to be a good parent for my children. so i'd like to exercise my muscle of active and intentional choice and build good habits to be the best i can be for them and for my fiancé and for myself.