Continuing from a previous post. . . Elder Boyd K. Packer wrote:
Controls for Discipline
Like the man in the shop, many of us may never have been told how serious an offense of Profanity can be. Ere we know we are victims of a vile habit—and the servant of our tongue. The scripture declare: “Behold, he puts bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn their whole body. “Behold also the ships, though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet they turn about with a very small helm, withersoever the govern listeth. “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. . . . “For every kind of beasts, and of birds and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: “But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
“Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. “Of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, My brethren these things ought not to be” (James 3:3-5, 7-10)
Habit Patterns for Discipline
There is something on this subject I would tell young people who are forming the habit pattern for their lives. Take, for example, the young athlete and his coach. I single out the coach, for to him, as to few others, a boy will yield his character to be molded.
Like the man in the shop many of us may never have been told how serious an offense of profanity can be. Ere we know it we are victims of a vile habit—the servant to our tongue. The scriptures declare: Young athlete, it is a great thing to aspire for a place on the team. A young man like you is willing to give anything to belong. Your coach becomes an ideal to you; you want his approval to be like him. But remember, if that coach is in the habit of swearing, if he directs the team with profane words or corrects and disciplines the team with obscenities, that is a weakness in him, not a strength. That is nothing to be admired or to be copied. It is a flaw in his character. While it may not seem a big one, through that flaw can seep contamination sufficient to weaken and destroy the finest of characters, as a disease germs can lay low the well-framed, athletically strong, physical body.
Coach, there are men in the making on the practice field. Haven’t you learned that when a boy wants so much to succeed, if he hasn’t pleased you, that silence is more powerful than Profanity?
While the counsel may apply to other professions, I single you out, coach, because of your unparalleled example (and perhaps, because the lesson is needed). ~Boyd K. Packer, In Wisdom and Order (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013) p. 60-61 ( continued with (The Disease of Profanity III))
