Sticks and Stones

A colleague in ministry posed the question: "We’ve all heard the children’s rhyme, “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.” but... is it true? Really?"

My response:
If we don't have a good sense of self-love, we are left vulnerable to the damage of words. The more we realize and teach others that people only hurt others out of their own pain and that we should never take anything personally, we will gain inner damage. Let's not forget how people's comments may remind us negatively of those who raised us. So no, it's not true; words can hurt us-- that is as long as we accept their poison. The many who have taken their own lives as a result of bullying probably didn't have the people in their lives to affirm their sacred value, or the negative inner voices were just too loud and too engrained. If we do recite the "sticks and stones" rhyme and teach it to our children, it should be framed as an affirmation that we choose for the words to not hurt us. That is the meaning of salvation after all- we are saved from these messages that have the potential of putting us in a living hell.