I believe that words have real power. I know we were told as kids that "sticks
and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." It was a lie.
I wonder if it was known to be a lie by well meaning parents even back
when I was young. Words can uplift and
encourage us. They can support a falling
spirit. They can make us laugh, perhaps even at ourselves. They, too, however can pummel us as hard as
stones. They have the force of hurled
rocks and the sting of falling hail.
I have seen these things in my life. I have received words of insult in my
childhood. My jaundiced yellowed eyes
caught the attention of the playground and soon I was being called "yellow
eyes, yellow eyes, yellow eyes." It
sounds really dumb now, but it was clearly meant as "you're a freak,
you're a freak." My response wasn't
any better. "yeah, it's a disease,
and you're gonna catch it!" Of
course that got a nice trip to the Principal's Office for me. It all worked out eventually. But it was a hurtful thing. Words can hurt. BTW, he couldn't catch what I had, and I knew
that.
You see, even as children, we realize that our words can be
used as weapons. We might not know just
how deeply that they can cut, but we know it hurts. We may not realize as well, that the words we
speak can be a power for good. Have you
ever heard an encouraging word just when you needed it most? I hope so.
There's nothing like it. Maybe it
was your boss saying just a simple 'Thanks, I know you've really stepped up
lately and I appreciate the hard word you've been doing.' Maybe, someone came by and told you that they
happened to be thinking of you. It
doesn't have to be a big thing to make a big impact.
I had the pleasure of talking to an older widow the other
day while at the Transplant Clinic. She
was sitting by herself and we struck up a conversation. It was towards the end of the day and I could
have just left and driven home, as it was a bit of a long drive. I felt compelled to stay though and listen to
her story. It was a story of love and
sadness, of compassion and loyalty. It
had struggle, yet also hope. I was able to
pray for her and her son. Life doesn't
get much better than that; when two strangers can share a moment, listen to
each other and support one another with words of encouragement.
I wonder too, what would have happened if I had just left
the conversation and driven home. What
would I have missed? What would Barbara
and Mike have missed? And more, how
often do we fail to recognize the opportunity to listen to each other? How many times have I missed the chance to
lend an ear? How many times are we too busy to see what is around us?
Words have power. We
(I) need to crush the stones that are on the end of our tongues before they are
thrown with vengeance. I need to find
the time and compassion to share an encouraging word. If we do these things, I think we'll be
blessed to hear the stories of the lives around us. And if words have power, stories have all the
more. I think everyone has a story worth
being told and heard.
My prayer is that we can all slow down, myself included, and
share an uplifting word with someone, even a stranger. I pray we take the time to hear the story of
another human on this spinning blue planet.
And I pray we can all tame our tongues and go back to the adage of our
mom's that "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at
all."
As Pastor K. Moore says;
"May God Bless you all real good."
Peace,
Brian
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