Words That Sting
Kim Phuc's life changed when, at the age of 9, a napalm bomb was dropped on her little village in Vietnam, and she was terribly burned. Her terror is immortalized in the famous picture shown in this devotion's artwork.
Kim was actually left for dead in the hospital following the attack, but her family found her and she was nursed back to health. Her body, however, was left terribly scarred by the bombs, and life was never the same for her because of the way she looked. People treated her differently as the "napalm girl."
When Words Cut Deeper Than Wounds
This first became clear to Kim when she returned to her family's home and caught sight of her dear friend with whom she would play for hours on end. As Kim walked along the road to reconnect with her friend, she saw her friend freeze in her tracks, without a smile or wave, looking at Kim with a scared and unsure look. Kim realized that her scars impacted everything. She was not normal anymore. Her friends wanted to keep their distance.
Even more painful were the words people would speak, not knowing their impact on Kim. With her body recovering from the bomb slowly, Kim's hands often lost the ability to grip things, and one day at a friend's house, she dropped a cup of soup when her fingers simply refused to take hold of it. The hot soup burned her leg, and she cried great big tears of pain and embarrassment. But worst of all were the words of her friend's father, who told Kim's mom to keep her fine dishes away from Kim and feed her from a coconut husk instead.
Kim writes this on page 54: "I did not hear him say those words in the moment. No, it would be years and years later when my ma would tell me what he had said. Even then, the syllables would sting. They would sting as sharply as had that napalm, and napalm stings worst of all."
That's something to think about, friends. Your words can sting, perhaps even worse than a bomb falling from the sky and slicing up a person's skin.
Watch Your Tongue
This is, of course, a biblical truth. Proverbs 12:18 says this: "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing". I always teach this verse to couples that come to me for marriage preparation classes. I tell them how important it will be to bring healing, not pain, to each other with their words, in their married life.
But it's true in all relationships! Here's the question: are you careful with your words? Careful to use them for healing, not piercing?
Kim's experience was that piercing words hurt as much as a napalm bomb. Remember that today, in each conversation you have.
