HOW WE THINK WE BECOMESample

BULLYING

We have probably all said this childhood rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Every 7 minutes a student is bullied (info from the NVEEE organization). I know of a family who lost their sweet granddaughter to bullying. Words do hurt us.

GOD LIVES IN US THROUGH THE POWER OF THE WORD, so why do we use words that tear down?

I have chosen to repeat this statement within each of the day’s devotionals because it is full of wisdom.

If you have read any of my other devotionals, you know that as a child I was bullied in school. A couple of girls daily threatened to beat me up and called me names to the point I feared going to school. Words impact!

I love the illustration where the leader squeezes all the toothpaste out of the tube in front of a group of listeners, then asks someone to put all the toothpaste back into the tube! Impossible, and so it is once words leave our mouths. We can seek forgiveness and be forgiven, but whomever we spoke the words to, will never be able to erase that scar from their mind.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29

I have long since forgiven those girls and have learned that if I fail to remove bitterness from my heart, it is me who allows the bullying from decades ago to remain. To not forgive, is abetting the actual event that took place.

Prayer: Father God, we often carry scars from words that were said to us, and worse yet, we often retaliate through bitterness and unforgiveness of those who spoke the words. Sometimes we go on defense to fight back and fall into their trap of saying words we don’t mean. Help us, Father God, to rise above and be the bigger person, for as we truly forgive, somehow the scars seem less and less as years go by.