What's In a name?

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

Words are powerful things. They can give us great joy and they can cause us to feel overwhelming pain! For example if someone calls you great, wonderful, or a hero you will most likely feel pretty good about life and the part you are playing in it. But if someone calls you lazy, stupid, or useless it’s very possible that you could start feeling worthless and wonder if there is any point in continuing to live life at all.

When I was six years old my parents got divorced and by the time I was seven my mom moved my sister and I to Oregon from Oklahoma. We moved at the end of summer, so we could start a brand new year of school, and I remember being very excited about my new school and all that came with it. Unfortunately the excitement didn’t last much beyond the first recess of that first day in school. You see people from Oklahoma, even young ones, talk differently from people in Oregon which is pronounced “Oreygone” if you’re from Oklahoma. During that first recess I learned how painful words can be. I was called a hick, a hillbilly, and a couple other words I won’t put in print. What I learned was that I was different, I knew it, they knew it, and they wanted me to know that they new it. By lunch time I was completely isolated and felt all alone. Every time I opened my mouth it gave people something new to make fun of, or a new name to call me.

That night my mom told me that “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” In all honesty I didn’t believe her. I wondered if she had ever been called a stupid hillbilly, or if anyone had ever made fun of the way they pronounced “Four Square” (Squair if you’re from Oklahoma). The next day was worse. Now they weren’t just making fun of they way I talked, they also made fun of the way I dressed, the way my hair was cut, and even the shape of my head. It was amazing how absolutely stupid everybody thought I was. For seven years I thought I was a fairly normal kid and now in just a couple of days I had been convinced that I was probably the least intelligent person on earth.

I might have continued feeling that way about myself if it wasn’t for a neighbor who lived across the street. His name was Mr. Stratton. He had three kids Susan, who was in my class, Sally two years younger than me, and His oldest son Jim. Mr. Stratton (Dick) became the a constant source of encouragement for me. He told me how funny I was (When I told a joke), how hard I worked, and what a good football player I was. He taught me how to play chess, asked me to join his Cub Scout pack, and even taught me how to play ping pong. Each step along the way making me feel like I really did matter and that I had something to contribute to the world around me.

Well here’s the point. Each and every one of us have different kinds of people in our lives. Some of them tear us down and some of them build us up. One of the most powerful tools used to do either are the words we speak to others. Those words have tremendous power to build us up and they have devastating power to tear us down. The world we live in wants us to believe that we are insignificant, unimportant, and worthless, but the God and creator of this world wants us to hear a different message. He wants us to know that we are loved, important, and priceless. God is telling us all that we are His kids, that we are smart, that we have value, and that we can make a difference. Listen to His words:

6 For somewhere in the Scriptures it says, "What is man that you should think of him, and the son of man that you should care for him? 7 For a little while you made him lower than the angels, and you crowned him with glory and honor. 8 You gave him authority over all things." Now when it says "all things," it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all of this happen.
Heb 2:6-8 (NLT)

I hope you have a Mr. Stratton in your life, but if you don’t or even if you do, I pray that God’s words will serve as a source of hope for you. He loves you, thinks you’re priceless, and He has great faith in you. And what’s more He’s willing to tell you so!

Pressing On:
Dale