The Power of Words

Come back with me during my time in grammar school. Do you remember the saying at that time? Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. It implies that if someone cursed at you or spoke indecently toward do not be ready to fight because words cannot hurt you, right? After all it is just a word, how can a word inflict punishment on someone? When you are hit with a rock you can see the mark and if hit with a stick you can see the mark where you have been hit. How do you show the marks of words that are said to you? 

I can remember to this day the words I was called. The kids would call me “lips” this is because I have very large lips. At that time because the word stigmatized me I always was offended and wanted to fight. The word lips has no power until it is comes through a persons world filter. World filter to me is how a person views the world. Some people view the world with a filter of anger and bitterness others have a more realistic view of life and their filter is less clouded. The other word the kids would call me is “soup”. It was a reference to my last name being the same as the Campbell soup company. This should give us so incite to how the words people use have power. The words in most cases attempt to make you feel uncomfortable with who you are and make the person who used the word feel empowered if you respond to the word
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The power of any word is its ability to break your perceptions of yourself or an idea and replace it with a new line of thinking whether positive or negative. Listen to the language and the words in the Gettysburg Address from President Lincoln” Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Can you see how the words are used to imply and change perception depending on how the hearer accepts the word? Words have power only as they change your world filter and touch your soul or personality, the Greeks called the soul your personality.

How do we explain the power of degrading, of abusive words? It has an affect on anybody because encased in certain words are negative energies. And it is not healthy to absorb this time of abusive over any period of time. As a matter of fact if you enjoy hearing and accepting abusive words, it is very likely you esteem is very low. Years ago I use to work in a residential treatment facility counseling dually diagnosed teenagers. These kids the secret to creating trouble and possibly getting their way was to start using abusive words to staff to set them off. If a staff responds through their emotions then more likely they will retaliate with abuse and get in trouble. The point is the creator of the abuse knows fully well the intend and purpose.

The power of words lie in the how a person translates the word through their word filter. Regardless of the tone or placement of the word, if the word is not translated right Any response can result. I can same “I like you” to a young lady and she may be going through a drought (lack of sexual activity) and she can have misconceptions that I want to start a relationship. Someone else can say “I hate the way you do that” those words can be taken as hating the person and not the action. However I hope you can see there is extraordinary power in words, but it is the mature person that allows words to have power when they should and minimize their power if needed.