The Power of Words

My wife (Claudia) very carefully dressed herself. Her makeup was applied in a meticulous manner with a fine brush. She brushed her hair numerous times, all the while making sure that each hair was in place. Claudia selected a pair of pants with a matching jacket. She dressed in a gingerly manner so that no wrinkles would appear on her carefully ironed selections. Claudia held her jacket up to the light to make sure that no lint or animal hairs adhered to it. She examined her blouse as she buttoned it up and then slipped on a carefully matched, carefully ironed jacket. Finally she selected a hat. She stood in front of her mirror and using two hands set it upon her head.
I impatiently stood at the foot of our stairs waiting as she descended dressed in her finery.

Claudia pursed her lips "Do I look okay?"

I responded with "Yeh, fine." 

Evidently, that was the wrong thing for me to say.

"Is there something wrong with how I'm dressed?"

"No, no. You look fine."

"Are you sure? You don't sound very convincing."

All that I would have had to say was "Hey beautiful, you look great!"  All of the world would have been different, but by my saying "Yeh, fine;" I ended up planting the seeds of doubt in her mind.

It's amazing, how a person can say one thing, but with different words convey different thoughts. 

The other day, I saw a very touching and meaningful video. It was less than two minutes long; I think that it was shot at a shopping area in either Liverpool, or Glasgow.

A blind man sat in front of the steps of a public building. A flat cardboard extended from beneath him and out beyond his feet. Behind him someone had fashioned a crude cardboard sign that read: "I'm blind. Please help."
A tin can sat on the cardboard in front of him.

Passerby's would glance at the man and fling an occasional coin into his tin can. No one appeared to pay him much attention.

A young well-dressed woman approached. She glanced at the man as she walked by. She walked several yards and then all at once stopped. She turned around and walked back to where the blind man sat.

The man reached out and touched her shoes.

The woman reached over and took the blind man's sign and started writing something on its back.

She set the sign down and continued walking finally disappearing into the crowd.

Soon, coins started cascading into the blind man's tin can. People would stop, read the mans sign and reach into their pockets and their wallets and place money into the can that sat in front of him.

Later on in the day, the young well-dressed woman returned. Once again she stood in front of him and once again, he reached over and touched her shoes.

"What did you do to me sign?" he asked.

She responded "I wrote the same, but different words."

"Thank you!" said the blind man.

What did the sign say? 

The sign read: "It's a beautiful day, but I can't see it."

The video concluded with "Change your words and change your world."
Proverbs 15:1 reads "A kind answer soothes angry feelings…" (Contemporary English Version),

Words do have power, they can sooth, they can heal, they can help and they can inspire. We just need to be careful, how we use them.

The video that I mentioned can be viewed on YouTube: You can go to it directly by typing this URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzgzim5m7oU , or you can just do a search for "The Power of Words."

xxx30xxx

You can send an email to Bill at eaglew@sthelensupdate.com, or better yet, visit the Valley Bugler web site at http://www.valleybugler.com
and leave your comments. Bill would love to hear from you.





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