The Third Commandment

 Exodus 20:7 gives us the third commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

If we truly believe in Him, we will display a reverent attitude towards Him and anything that belongs to Him, including His name. What belongs to Him? EVERYTHING! I feel that the only thing that belongs to us is our agency. 

Having said that, to me, this commandment means that we should show respect towards Him, His name, His attributes. It means that we should not use His name and anything else that describes Him in a profane way, not even in a joke that is meant to be funny.
How many of us are guilty of using His name in a derogatory way when angered? And sometimes not even when angered, but just out of apathy or ignorance and without giving it a second thought? How many of us are guilty of speaking of Him lightheartedly? 

These questions bring the following questions: how can we profess to believe in Him and pray to Him, when we use His name in vain? How can we call upon His name to help us and a moment later show Him disrespect?

Elder LeGrand Richards shared the following, in "The Third Commandment", The Ten Commandments Today: "Profanity is incompatible with reverence. Surely at this critical time in our nation's history, when we need the sustaining help of God, we should see that we do not offend him by reason of our language."

Elder Richards passed away in 1983. I am not sure when he wrote the above-mentioned work, but it was at least 42 years ago. Isn't his statement just as valid today?

So now I am going to ask ourselves a few last questions to ponder upon:
In what other ways do we take His name in vain?
What things can we start doing (or stop doing) to follow this commandment?
How are we going to use our agency in regard to this commandment?

Each question has multiple answers. It is up to each and every one of us to discover them and apply them in our lives.