Suspended

My 13 year-old son Robbie, came home sobbing from school on Monday. It seems that someone in gym class came up behind him and choked him.

Later in the day I found out what led up to that. This kid was teasing Robbie and calling him names and not using nice language. Robbie said he was just ignoring it until after they ran the one mile run. Robbie said this other kid was teasing him about how slow he ran and started with more name calling. Robbie said he had had enough so he pushed him. That is when the other kid grabbed Robbie from behind in a choke hold.

Yesterday, the assistant principal talked to all the parties involved. Robbie ended up being suspended for a day because he pushed the other boy. The other kid was suspended for the remainder of this week. While I don't like my son being suspended, I think this is pretty fair.

I asked Robbie if being choked like that hurt. He said, "Yes, but not as much as being teased in front of everyone."

My heart ached for him and still does. This is more proof that our words are very powerful. They have the power to build others up or to tear them down.

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:21

Watch Your Mouth!

This past weekend, my family and I headed west to Chicago for the weekend. We spent Friday in Chicago and Saturday we braved the cold temperatures and attended the Ohio State versus Northwestern football game.

The Buckeyes played well and won 45-10. We had a blast.

Later that evening we were watching the local news who were discussing the game. Two different sportscasters stated that Ohio State showed poor sportsmanship by “running up the score.” They claimed that they did this because they ran a fake punt on 4th down and 2 with nine minutes to go and they were leading by 21 points.

I was amazed at what I was hearing. I then thought about all the people who were watching this who did not see the game and how their minds would be swayed into thinking this was the truth simply because it was said from a “trusted” source.

I know that OSU did not run up the score for the following reasons:
1) Coach Jim Tressel doesn’t have a “run up the score” bone in his body
2) The Buckeyes were up 21 points in and were playing in weather conditions that were anything but perfect. With 9 minutes to go and a couple of turnovers, Northwestern could have come back. Sure, this was not probable, but it was not impossible.
3) OSU’s offense has been anemic much of the season and Coach Tressel was probably trying to build confidence for the stretch run.

I bring all this up because we need to be careful what we say. Whoever came up with the slogan “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me” was wrong. Words can be damaging.

So let’s watch what we say!

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Psalm 141:3