Verbal Garbage

Verbal abuse stings. It cuts deeply into our hearts and has a way of staying with us for many years. Long after the abuser is finished with us, his or her words haunt us--because we keep the words alive repeating them to ourselves. It is an ironic and tragic part of emotional and verbal abuse that we end up joining the abuser in attacking ourselves.

It is a boundary problem when we receive anything another says to us and about us--regardless of whether it has any validity or not.

A friend recently sent me an email about a taxi driver who prayed for those who dumped verbal garbage on him. He refused to let ugly words ruin his day. He knew it was garbage, and responded to it accordingly. We would never put garbage on a rotating carousal and run it through our house over and over....So, is anyone interested in joining me on working on treating verbal abuse as the garbage that it is?

Let's throw out the garbage as it comes, letting go of hurtful words.

Let's pray that God will reveal himself to abusers and teach them about His love.

From now on, let's hang onto what God says about us (we're loved, we're created wonderfully, we are a child of God, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are equipped for every good work that God has planned for us to do, etc.)