There is an old saying that I first was told as a child who had been hurt by hateful words that had been spoken to me. The saying goes, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” I am sure that you have heard this also.
With the experience of 66 years of living I am now acutely aware of another saying that can be applied to the one above. Can we say, “BULLSHIT!”?
The worst I have ever been hurt in my life, by others and by myself, has been from words. Words others have directed to me and negative, self-loathing words I have applied to
myself.
Never lose sight of the fact that words have a power far beyond that of any weapon of mass destruction that scientists can devise. And there is no magic self-destruct button we can press once we launch negative, hateful, judgmental, critical words past our lips. We can say, “I’m sorry,” or, “I didn’t mean that.” While saying these things can sometimes lessen the impact of our destructive words, they can never erase them.
Destructive words have a power that cannot be stopped once they are spoken.
On the other hand, kind, encouraging words are only unrealized potential if we simply think them but never speak them. We need to be very intentional in speaking words that lift up and encourage those around us. We are surrounded every day by people who are discouraged and struggling just to get by. Most of the people we encounter each day are probably beating themselves up about failures and shortcomings, both real and imagined, and a smile and kind encouraging word from us might just release the power they need to turn their lives around.
Whenever we are tempted to launch angry, mean, critical, judgmental words we need to pause and picture a mushroom cloud that not only will affect the person(s) at whom we are directing them, but will burn us also. But be quick to picture a beautiful flower bud bursting into gorgeous bloom when we speak encouraging, positive kind words into being.
Think about it.
You are loved. Peace.
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