Sticks and Stones

We have all heard the children's saying "Sticks and Stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."  I don't know where that saying came from but it couldn't be further from the truth.There have been a couple of times in my life when I said some words that, to put it as nice as I can, they just weren't right. It has happened again, words or the wrong ones or using the wrong meaning of a word can and does hurt.  Emotional pain, can be o so devastating. Unless you have a skull that is an inch think or simply do not care about anything, words can hurt deeply. I can think of several times that I used words wrongly or misunderstood the meaning intended. Then it is people that we love or that love us can hurt us deeply. If there is an emotional attachment through family or some kind of relationship. be it through Church, a business relationship, family relationship, or what ever, the wrong words can cut us deeply. It has happened to me, and I have been the speaker of words that have hurt others. I think that Christ because he is God and created us and knows us better than anyone can possibly cut through the junk and tells us just what we need at the right time.Who hurts us the most deeply? Usually it is someone we trust, a parent or other relative. Perhaps a child can say things that deeply hurt us. A lover, a confidant. Some times an imperfect parent that has hurt us can give us a tainted view of God that is not correct.  God always has our best interest at heart.  But here is an important question: What do we do with our hurts? Do we take them to God and let him handle it or do we harbor them inside? There are no perfect people, there is not a perfect church. After all, Churches are made up of the same imperfect people we deal with every day. We want them to be perfect, after all they are suppose to be Christ like, but they too are on  a journey and have not reached the end of their travels. Parents are not perfect, often we see the mistakes of our parents and we think we will never be like them and then down the road we see the same imperfections in ourselves that we saw in our parents. Some times the desire to be better is so strong that we do not want to acknowledge the same imperfections in ourselves.  Some times God must smile at our foolish talking, because he sees us as we really are. God love can fix any hurt, if we will just give it to him. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will really really really hurt. Especially when they are from some one we love and care for.  God bless, LVZ.