When I was a child I would organize neighborhood earthworm brigades to save the worms that were drowing in the heavy spring rains. Something in me couldn't bear the thought that hundreds of little pink wigglies would die such a horrible and ignoble death. Of course, I was only five or so at the time...
The other day I was telling a friend about my childhood earthworm brigades and when I had finished she said, "Jerri, you are still organizing earthworm brigades; only now, your earthworms have gotten a little bigger."
She was referring to my adult propensity to work with broken people. I can't help but reach out to the throw-a-way people in our world. Our world is sadly littered with throw-a-ways.
Who are these throw-a-way people?
They are ordinary people like you and me. They are people who have been taught to believe the lies they've been told about themselves. They are the people who have been told over and over, that they are too useless, ugly, stupid, crazy, lazy, (you name it) to ever make it in this world of ours.
In the name of all that is holy, how dare we use our words to wound one another this way? Words have enormous power. They can shape us. They do shape us.
One of my favorite scriptures goes like this: Set a guard over my mouth Oh Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. (Psalm 141: 3)
Some days, that one sentence becomes a mantra for me. I know the deep wounding power of words, and I never wish to speak them in a harsh, unkind way to anyone, friend or foe.
I also know the deep healing and redemptive power of words. I choose to speak the power of love and grace into life, all life!
Whether we are an earthworm, or human we all need a little rescuing now and then. Sometimes a kind word is all that is needed to pull anyone of us out of our own drowning pools.
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