I have really been marinating in the power words can have to heal and to hurt. By now, you all have heard about Karen Klein, a lady who is a bus monitor in upstate New York. She is overweight, and a handful of middle schools students on the bus began to rip her apart with their harsh and hateful words. They called her fat, ugly and even had the audacity to say that she was so ugly that her children should just kill themselves. Little did those kids know that one of Mrs. Klein's children had killed himself in the last couple of years.
What on earth possessed those students to say those things to her? I sat there in disbelief as I watched that video on Fox & Friends. Most of it had to be bleeped out because of the students' foul language, but Mrs. Klein's tears were not edited - they were very real.
I was a really sensitive kid in school, and I got teased on the bus. To this day, I can still remember the taunts. I wonder if those kids are thinking about how they made Mrs. Klein feel? Are they sorry? Are they remorseful? I surely hope so.
James 3:5-6 says that "[l]ikewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. "
It is amazing to me that our words have the power to make someone smile as well as the power to make someone cry. Our words have the power to encourage as well as the power to discourage. I pray that we are raising a generation of children who will love all people in the name of Jesus.
Words can scar someone for life. They can also heal someone in the midst of their suffering. Let's all keep our tongues in check and remember that old adage, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
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