“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

My sister and I used play a childhood game where we called each other food names as insults.  The more unappealing the food, the harsher the insult. When Ronda called me a “Brussel Sprout!” I would respond with “Spinach!” Using harsh tone of voice, we accentuated the syllables to really drive the insult home. We got creative, elongating the food name, such as “Green bean casserole” or “Liver and Onions” giving the slur more punch. We laughed as we pretended to be offended by the food name.

While pretending to hurt each other’s feelings with food names is innocent and silly, real insults and harsh words pierce our soul and crush our spirit, leaving gaping wounds on our heart too deep for an “I’m sorry” Band-Aid.

I witnessed a woman whose posture changed from standing tall and confident to shrugged shoulders with her eyes averted to the ground. Her smile became a frown in seconds as the word “useless” penetrated her heart, reminding me of David’s lament in Palm 42:10(TLB)

“Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound;”

The old adage Sticks and Stones was used to encourage children to ignore insults and refrain from retaliation. Our world today is much different from the late 1800’s when this phrase made its first appearance in our conversations.  Unfortunately, people tear others down in order to elevate themselves, causing unhealed wounds to take bitter roots deep into unforgiving soil.

Let us all try to use our words to encourage and empower one another, remembering the elementary truth if we don’t have anything nice to say, then we shouldn’t say anything at all.

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11 NLT

Peace be with you.

Julia