I am sure you know the old saying “Sticks and Stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” If only that were true. Words hurt, and sometimes they hurt a lot. They hurt me rarely now that I am an adult, but they hurt me a whole lot sometimes when I was a kid.
This was long before that retort “I know I am but what are you?” was made popular by some yellow kid named Bart.
I was bullied both verbally and physically. I was a smart skinny kid with a quick wit and an even quicker tongue. I could shoot insults like spit balls. I usually did so as a response to one coming at me first, but I should have been more thick skinned at times and avoided a conflict. Sometimes one of those conflicts could result in a fight, a rolling on the ground kind of fight that got me in trouble with my Mom.
I got into it with one of my neighborhood friends after calling him a “Jello brain, worm breath, pantie waisted punk.” Not a nice thing to say.
There was one kid named Walter ( yes, I still remember his last name) who bullied me a lot, as he did other kids smaller than him. I also remember he was a very smart dresser, liked Eagle shirts. That was the kind of button down shirt with the hanger loop on the back. He liked to steal those off the backs of other kids, which sometimes resulted in a torn shirt and that would be followed by a fight. There was another kid named Ricky who lived behind our house, another bully who made me so made on occasion that I chased him home while threatening to kill him. I could leave him crying at his door, without putting a finger on him.
I did get into too many insult flinging altercations, but I think that was part of being a kid. Some of those insults took place on the neighborhood baseball sandlot. We had a couple of those, one in a field behind a motel not far away and another on the grounds of a hospital also not far away. Those insults went something like this (hit back once you view on youtube) I used to look a lot like Squints glasses and all:
Lets face it. Hurtful words, well they hurt. So do lies and rumours. I have had both told about me, can’t be in business with competitors without that happening. Cant’t be involved in politics either, family or government, unless you have a thick skin, as thick as leather sometimes. David, the psalmist knew that words and lies can hurt. Those things hurt like arrows, but they can also hurt like boomerangs. They are bad for the person saying hurtful words also. When I was in business I had an older gentleman as a partner, and he always said don’t put the other guy down, tell your buyers why you are better not why your competitors are bad. Don’t ever put them down, you will damage yourself more than you do them.
And most importantly our Heavenly Father knows our intentions and hears our words. He knows the truth about us. He expects us to do our best to live at peace with others, to do good for those who despitefully say things about us. When hurtful words are being hurled in our direction, just step behind the spirit of God, he will protect us from those verbal arrows.
Psalm 120
A song of ascents.
1 I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
2 Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
3 What will he do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
4 He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.
5 Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
6 Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
7 I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
“Keep your words nice and sweet, you never know from day to day which ones you will have to eat.”