Words

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="002a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Page"><U>BOOKS   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>ARTICLES</U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tapes"><U>TAPES</U></A>   </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Warfare/Occult "><U>SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OCCULT   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sexual Abuse Issues"><U>SEXUAL ABUSE ISSUES</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exposing the Darkness Seminar"><U>***EXPOSING THE DARKNESS SEMINAR***</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-860/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="50">  </U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="388331c0.jpg" border=0 width="307" height="284" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Words </B></div> <bR> <div> <B> I've spent a lot of time in East Texas. I lived there for several years. It's a whole uther country. You bayet.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     When I first lived in Dallas, I was fresh from life in "LA LAND", a.k.a., Los Angeles - the Granola city - home of fruits, nuts and flakes. But for the grace of God, I could have ended up in a cereal bowl too. It took 5 Californians to put in a lightbulb - one to screw it in, five to "share the experience". I knew how the world felt about us, and I was terrified to go to Texas for Bible School. The folks there, as I expected, assumed I needed demons cast out of me. I might as well have been from Neptune. They thought I talked funny, but it was I who needed an interpreter. "We're fixin' to go to the chapel." Excuse me? To fix what? "Too much for the movies, dude", I'd reply in kind, and so remained with a great gulf fixed between us.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     After a few years, I not only adjusted, but I learned to love the weird sayings of Texian language. I even started speaking it myself. I'm adaptable. (I'm a chameleon. I'm red, I'm blue, I'm green, I'm confused, AAAAHHH!) Sorry. Anyway, I've learned a lot about words and the importance of being careful what you say. People take words seriously, and words don't always mean the same thing everyplace. For example, pity the poor Brit who comes to a redneck town here and tries to bum a cigarette in his own language. "Can you find me a fag?" Bad idea, possibly fatal. But he didn't know. Words are important. So were he to live, he'd learn that a cigarette is not a fag here, he'd adjust, learn to be polite, be aware of his words, how to stay alive and unmangled.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Words are so powerful, really. They can hurt or heal, bring life or death, make unclean or make pure. I've learned the hard way to be very careful what I say, and how. Working with kids, every word matters, every word said in haste or anger is absorbed, felt and REMEMBERED by them.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Recently this truth was made real clear to me. I'd spent a lot of time in East Texas in 1988 and didn't just know how they talked, but started to use a lot of their funny expressions. One of my favorites was, "He's as mean as a box of rocks and just as ugly." Or, "It was so windy I saw a downwind chicken lay the same egg three times." What a hoot! My all-time favorite was, "Don't never have a pukin' contest with a vulture." I wasn't sure what it meant, but I nearly DID lose my cookies laughing the first time I heard it. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     When I returned to my West Texas youth group which had neither strange sayings nor accents, I totally enjoyed telling them about the latest expression I'd heard from the land of Texian East. They usually busted a gut too. Well, I'm an educator. It's part of my job. Multicultural exchange is important, no?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Wayne is a big kid with a hard life. He was the group goof off and the other kids made fun of him a lot. On the surface, he didn't seem to mind but deep down I knew it hurt this very vulnerable 15 year old kid. Underneath his goof-off exterior, he was sensitive, and deep, and real. It hurt when he left us, knowing it was at least partly because of the ridicule the other kids gave him.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     About a year after he stopped coming to bible study, I saw him walking and picked him up. I told him we missed him and there'd always be a chair with his name on it. He got very quiet.</B></div> <div> <B>     </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Wayne changed the subject, asking me about a criminal case I was pursuing on a local low-life that was hurting kids. I told him the latest, and Wayne said, "Well, don't never have a pukin' contest with a vulture." I laughed and looked at him. "I can't believe you remember that!", I said. He looked me straight in the eyes, unsmiling. "I remember every word you've ever said." It was like a punch to the gut. I never really understood till then. Every word - every emotion - every inflection is weighed by these trusting, vulnerable hearts God entrusted me with. EVERY WORD!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     How many times had I spoken out of anger or irritation, not knowing the young girl I spoke to had spent the whole day at home wishing her mom or dad would notice how much she was hurting? How many times, in my insensitivity, had I teased someone in "good fun", not realizing their whole life carried the scars of rejection and being made fun of? </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     After I dropped Wayne off, I started thinking about all the conversations I'd had with our kids in the last few years and wondering how many times I'd hurt them and not known it. I had some amends to make. But thankfully, I also knew I'd spoken words of gentleness, healing and understanding, friendship and a father's love. I knew because I saw it in Wayne's eyes. I knew he knew - I would always love him, never turn him away. I knew in one look too that I could never again take for granted the power of words - my words - God's Words. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     O God, set a watch at my lips; let my words be careful and full of truth and love. Knowing all my words will be remembered, remind me of the eternal weight they carry. Let them heal and not hurt; let them bring life, not death. Let me respect the fragile hearts of the young, knowing I could easily wound them beyond repair. It had been done to me; well-intentioned pastors who had no idea how much I clung to </B><B>their every word. Well, it's my turn now. With His help, I'll do it right. Wayne let me know in his words and his life how important it is. For all the kids yet to come, Lord, I'll do it right.</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id167.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Riding It Out"><U><B>CHAPTER FIFTEEN - RIDING IT OUT</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>