Do you know how important the words you speak are? God has really impressed that on me over the past couple of years. I learned from an early age choosing your words wisely was always good and wise, though I've not always been good to follow that. I grew up with the "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", but the reality is words hurt worse than stones. Sure stones can do serious damage, but as a child words said to me still leave a sting and a bruise on my heart. I had a really hard time with acne growing up, I was my daughter's age 13, when my face was so broken out with pimples and blackheads. I washed my face, I saw a dermatologist, but nothing really helped except to grow out of it. I still hate seeing pictures of me at that age, but not for the reasons you may think. A group of girls at school used to play off my maiden name and call me "Horrow" all the time, and say "you are so ugly you look like a horror show", those words stung and did not do much for my self esteem either. As a parent my own kids have had acne troubles and I have helped them as much as I possibly could. To my knowledge they have never gone through what I did with other kids, but I know it's tough on the self esteem sometimes, especially for my daughter. I have used the lessons I learned to try and help my kids navigate through this. For me, personally, I would have rather had stones thrown at me, than the daily verbal abuse flung at me. I still see these girls in my memories and I remember how mean they were, but somehow I wanted them to like me. Fast forward several years, and God has used those moments to impress on me the importance of our words. Not just words spoken that can hurt, but words that I speak that can hurt my life and well being. Of course I don't intentionally set out to hurt my own life, but when I speak negatively in a situation I do just that. I have tested this and its true. That is not to say nothing bad ever happens to me because it does. I live in a fallen world and bad things do happen to good people for no apparent reason. Of course I believe that things do happen for a reason, but we don't always see the reason right away. In the hardships of my life I learn something in each situation, and I think it makes me more sensitive to others when they go through tough times. While Eddie and I struggled through our financial problems over the past years, we gave to others when God impressed that upon us, sometimes money, sometimes clothes, sometimes food and it was truly not something we had in abundance but God always repaid us more than we gave. Every time I looked at my finances I would say it will get better, we will make it through this week, we will have the grocery money we need, our finances will improve. You know what? They did and on those darkest days, I would go to the mailbox and there would be a check or someone would hand me groceries, or even clothes. We never went hungry, we never went around in rags and we never got behind on our house, electricity or water. God is faithful to His Word, and I quoted His Word in my prayers and still do.
Lisa
