Do you say “Oh my G**!” or “Oh my gosh!”?

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Oh my G**! or Oh my gosh!

Listen to random conversations around you. You will definitely notice more people verbally spewing “Oh my G**!” to express their excitement rather than using the phrases  “Oh my gosh!” or “Oh my goodness!” 

This choice has also carried over into our electronic communications. When texting became the norm, abbreviations were formed to hurry the typing process, which brought on the OMG overload.

Some say the letters OMG! stand for Oh my gosh!, but I believe they are skirting the truth.

Often referred to as acronyms, (though by definition they are initialisms)  only the first letter of each word is used to form an abbreviation so we can type messages faster. Many trendy typed conversations to your BFF (Best Friend Forever) might also include:

  • BRB – Be Right Back

  • BTW – By The Way

  • TTYL – Talk To You Later

  • LOL – Laugh Out Loud

  • GTG – Got To Go.

When we speak Oh my gosh! as a form of exasperation, it’s definitely not the same as speaking Oh my G**!  

Some believe gosh stands in for God in this phrase, so therefore they feel the first statement is equally wrong. But if you really want to communicate to our Lord, it’s good to know who we are addressing and how we should address Him—

Gosh is not our deity—God is our deity.

When addressing God, punctuation is everything! The phrase Oh (followed by a comma), my God!, addresses God and therefore calls out to Him. No matter our situation is praise to Him or a cry for help; we are calling out to the Creator of all things. Biblical history reveals from the beginning that G-O-D is revered and should never be a word used as an exasperation. 

We have to remember G-O-D is the title name used when referring to YHWH, the true name of God.

Israelites of old believed so strongly in recognizing the power of God that they would not even pronounce His name. When reading from the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, the reader would insert the word Adonai. Adonai means lord or ruler.

Because those that consider gosh as a “euphemistic alteration of the name God“, they believe it is just as bad and that is why they refuse to even exclaim gosh!.

I believe the opposite. Inserting the innocent exclamation of gosh! in place of G-O-D is a good thing. The title name of our holy Creator, God, should never be used in vain. God told us this in His third commandment:  

Exodus 20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

So replacing the title name, God (which never should have been used incorrectly in the first place),  with the non-holy exasperation word gosh, should be looked upon as very acceptable.

When we replace G-O-D with gosh, we acknowledge His title name to be sacred.

We also take out the coma, so there is no address to gosh. Oh my gosh, I love you, God! The word God has history of being holy. The word gosh is not found in the Bible, has no holy meaning and does not relate to our LORD, the Creator of the universe in any way.

holy—adjective : exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness

Exalted, worthy, perfect. These adjectives do not describe the word gosh.

By definition, God versus gosh is very different.

God—noun : the Being perfect in power, wisdom and goodness, who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe

gosh—interjection : used to express surprise or mild anger

I would never pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray to gosh my soul to keep.”  This statement has no meaning and would give me no comfort. Gosh is not a noun, but an interjection. An acceptable way to express surprise, be it good or bad.

“Oh my G**!” offers our omnipotent supreme deity no glory and the phrase needs to be recognized for what it is—verbal sin.

Hebrews 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

I encourage you, if you have the bad habit of spewing Oh my G**! as an exasperation, please take the time to change this verbal sin to God. Your effort will definitely please or Lord.

Christian worship leader/recording artist, Matt Redman, wrote and sings the ASCAP Christian Song of 2013, 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord):

Your rich in love and Your slow to anger Your name is great and Your heart is kind…

Matt Redman’s lyrics describe just four of the 10,000 Reasons we need to worship His holy Name!

SHARE: Do you say “Oh my G**!” or “Oh my gosh!”?, on Facebook.

To learn and share the importance of keeping God’s name holy, order copies of LIFT HIM UP DON’T PULL HIM DOWN @ LULU.COM or AMAZON.COM for your next Bible study.

37 thoughts on “Do you say “Oh my G**!” or “Oh my gosh!”?”

    • Thank you for your comment, Valerie. I remember in high school we used to exclaim “Cool!” or “Oh man!” It was the 70s 😀! Now all I ever hear is Oh my G**! for everything. I tried to start a “Beets” phrase movement, but it didn’t catch on with my daughters high school friends 😂.

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  4. Some expressions I wonder about though. For instance “oh my goodness”. David calls God his goodness in one of the psalms. God is my goodness. Even “Oh dear”. Who is the most dear to us? God is. So what do we say? I have no idea. We ARE called to be holy. Which is not referring to morality but being different. I other words we are called to be set apart and different than the world. Everyone in this world says “Oh my gosh”. Why should we? Besides, I’ve found that those in the world don’t really see a difference between “gosh” and “g**” If you say “gosh” they’ll use “g**” interchangeably. I’d rather stay away from it and just say wow or something like that.

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    • Yes, you are right. If you believe a specific word has a connection to God, why use it in a profane manner? Bottom line —God knows our hearts. Only He knows if we are truly addressing Him or blatantly using His name in vain. I side with caution.

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  6. I don’t use Oh My G**, but I do use Oh my Gosh or Oh my goodness. On FB or texts, I don’t use OMG, I use OMGeez. I agree, finding appropriate exclamations that aren’t curse words is difficult. One of my old friends used to say, “Ham Sandwich!”. I tried it but it didn’t work for me, lol.

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  7. I so agree with all you’ve said. Plus I think the use of our Saviour’s name as a swear word is even worse, though I get that you’re particularly calling Christians to be aware of their language here! Television, films and social media have devalued the names of God and Jesus, yet other religions are vociferous in the defence of their prophets and deities. Words have power. We need to choose ours carefully and tell people about the one whose name they are misusing!

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    • All true. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I was not one to say Oh myG**. I’m sure it did come out some time in my 59 years of life, but not from habit. What I did have a habit of incorrectly doing was worshiping God’s name in church, when in fact I was upset about some situation and my heart was actually filled with negativity and anger, not love for God. That is also using His name in vain. Of course God knows our hearts so He knew my worship was false. I try to set my heart right now, before service and especially before communion.

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  8. Thanks for your like of my post, “Rapture Review – Who’s Going? – Who’s Left Behind?” You are very kind. Btw, I am sure that you can remember the commercial, “It’s not nice to fool mother nature.” (There is no mother nature). Well, God will say, it’s not nice to say OMG. God doesn’t approve of euphemisms that, in way, have any connection to His Holy Name.

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  9. I do not have a problem using “Geeze” or “Gosh” as an exclamation, because I do not pray to either of those words and do not consider them holy. They are purely interjections. It’s when we directly use God’s title, the name Jesus, or Jesus Christ in place of swear words because some believe those names are better than using ugly swear words. Not good. Not good.

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    • Hello,
      I actually think the same. I use “oh my goodness” a lot and I was concerned on whether it offends God or not, and then I found this blog! I appreciate this. I was also wondering, if the world uses these phrases interchangeably, would we be bad examples even when we’re using these in the right manner(i.e not actually meaning God when you say Goodness).

      Thank you.

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      • Hello JoJo, Thank you for reading and posting your thoughts and a question on this topic. I do not believe we are a bad example if we use proper exclamations– ones that do not reference God, Lord or Jesus. I believe as long as there is no reflection on Him, then, oh my goodness, there is nothing wrong with being excited and speaking an exclamation! Thank you for asking.

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        • I’m sorry if i’m posting this twice I just wasn’t sure if my comment was posted.
          Would it be the same case if someone used the word “heck” instead of “hell”?
          Thank you!

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          • Also, would it be wrong to watch a show where “omg”(in full) is used (a lot of TV shows do) even if you don’t personally take the Lord’s name in vain?
            I forgot to add it my previous comment, excuse me for the many questions.
            Thanks.

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  11. It is very American to come up with a proxy that sound similar. It makes my hear every time I hear gosh. I don’t think changing two letters will fool god, the word gosh is fallacy and a title is a title nothing more.
    The old testament says to not use the name in vain nothing is said about the title. If the the expression oh my god is blasphemous then don’t use the expression oh my god period the English language is rich there are other way to express surprise or mild anger. Something simple as “aw” works just as well and mean the same.

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    • Yes, there is no reason to ever take the lords name in vain. “Aw” works perfectly and does express the element of surprise. I thank you for reading and posting a comment. Enjoy your day and stay safe. Blessings.

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  12. I’ve been feeling constricted of using such words as this, I wanted talk in a more appropriate manner and not use extreme bitter language. I thought is I use euphemisms, I’ll be okay, but words like heck, darn, dang, shoot , freak, freakin’ and um…crap( You can tell I’m pretty nervous like I’m walking on tightrope) I’m literally too frighten to talk

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    • Hi Dai, Thank you for reading this post. I certainly don’t want you to be nervous to speak. We all need exclamations to express in surprise, anger, at times emotions are running high. Pick a word you feel comfortable saying, one not offensive to God or others, and get in the habit of using that word. Years ago I started saying “pickles!” I always liked saying that, but have gotten away from it over the years. It was enjoyable to say in front of my daughter when she was younger.

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      • Ok, thank you, that’s understandable, but what about the ones I listed down and etc (Still euphemisms), just to let you known I refer to myself as “The one who’s totally interested in cartoons ” type of guy. One I’m planning on making cartoons,and maybe movies myself in the future, yet I question my concerns how that’ll effect my uses of language. Is safe to use words of the alternative?

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  13. I’m sorry I can’t get through every euphemism that you could possibly use in a cartoon. Those that directly include or reference our Lord’s name, you should refrain from using.

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  14. OK so what am I saying? “FAMOUS BASKETBALL PLAYER has the friggin’ gol’ darn ball and he is dribbling down the court with it. He’s taking the shot and Jeepers Creepers, it hit the rim! But wait, he has the rebound, Oh, My, Gosh he has dunked it. Chripts, what an athlete. Now do you need a translation, I think not. Patronizing GOD in this way is just plain terrible and wrong. My friends, GOD knows exactly what you are really saying so please, please stop it. The reviewer that suggested WOW is right on the mark.

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    • Hi, Donald. Thank you for reading this post. I’m not sure I understand you, but if a spectator gets excited and shouts enthusiastic words, I believe as long as there is no reference to God in those excited exclamations and nothing vulgar then there is no malice directed at God. We all have times the adrenaline is rushing and we get excited/happy/surprised about something. Just keep the excite pure and clean…no ill intentions.

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  15. When typing I use OMGosh so people know I’m not using His name in vain. (This post pop up in the recommend section – I see its an older one.) When talking I us Oh my gosh or goodness. My son came up with – Oh my world, I use that sometimes.

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