Sticks and stones can break my bones....

But words can break my heart. Hurtful words are something that leave such a lasting impression. Without going into details (because we've all been there and had similar situations), I had some very hurtful words said to me the other day, and I'm having trouble getting past it. Having a big mouth like I do, I snapped some hateful words too. Regretted it, and apologized to the person later. Then this week I've been seeing two people going at it verbally on FB in front of our whole community. I don't know either personally, and I don't know what was said, and don't care, but it irritated me enough to block the one that kept attacking the other. What does this person hope to accomplish? What kind of impression are they giving to everyone around them?

We had a goldfish pond in the yard for a while. It looked really nice for a while, we had several koi in it, a rock out in the middle with water running over it, flowers planted around the edges. Then but leaves started to clog up the pump, the kids threw rocks in it and cracked the liner, and it started looking worse and worse. We finally gave up on it, and it's been a sludge pit for a while (mosquito heaven). I've been wanting to fill it in with dirt and just use the rocks bordering it to form a firepit in the spot.

Yesterday Dave got the tractor and filled it in. (Unfortunately along with the border rocks.) Where the other day there was a slimy sludgy (is that even a word) mess, now there is a fresh blank patch of dirt. You can't see the plastic liner, old hose and rocks that are covered up. (And yes, I know it was very unfriendly to the environment to leave all that stuff, but don't judge. That stuff was nasty!) The point is, it looks nice and fresh now, ready to have some grass seed planted, a firepit made. But we know what's under that. And it's not pretty.

That's how it is with our words. We can apologize, try to make up for it, but the effects of our words won't go away so easy. They last. Before we open our big fat mouth (talking to myself here), take a second to stop and think if you want those words hanging over your head for years to come. Because they don't go away.