Words are........ "devastating" Powerful...!

The words that we speak create either....

 a place of purpose in people's lives .............or

 a place of pain in people's lives.

It is said.........
"Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will never hurt you."
 
Really? 
Insults, teasing, gossip, and verbal abuse & cursing of another can inflict deeper and more enduring pain than guns and knives.......



Ask anyone who, as a kid was fat, skinny, short, tall, flat-chested, big-busted, acne-faced, uncoordinated, slow-witted, or exceptionally smart........
In schoolrooms and playgrounds, weight, height, looks, and intelligence are the subject of more taunting and ridicule than race or religion.....
And it doesn't get better !
Unkind words, tasteless jokes, criticism, and ridicule don't lose their sting when we become adults..... 
...only then it might be in the form of escalating degrading insults & being screamed on & cursed !
A physical manifestation of ......NO respect for the  'subject' of the tyranny ! 

You might not be what you say you are, but what you say, you are...
 
There's nothing new about this.... 
But if we trivialize how damaging words can be, to anyone, -but especially to youngsters, the ethical significance of verbal assaults can be lost. 
When we say words can't hurt anyone, we negate the feelings of those who are genuinely hurt.
Pride ............Temper.........pressure are all influencing factors; but the irreparable damage it has done, is.........tragic. 
Many Relationships, (whether love or friendship) are destroyed, most of the times ..........permanently! 

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them......

Instead of minimizing the importance of words, we should encourage parents, teachers & each other to demand a higher level of respect and greater sensitivity, precisely because words can be so powerful.
 
Yes, -we should try to fortify our children's sense of self-worth so they can bear insults and sarcasm better. 
.......and we should urge them not to take what others say too seriously. 
But it's just as important to teach them that words have the 'power of grenades' and must be used carefully, because...........

"........Niks wat OOIT gese word, geloofd ek gaan ooit verlore nie, maar dit 'reverberate'/echo vir ewig voort soos die rimpels van 'n klip in 'n spieelgladde plaasdam, & het 'n effek op alles & almal wat in lyn is met die alwyerwordende rimpels wat 'ad infinitum' uitkring...."HJ

Shalom