Sticks and Stones: Overcoming the Wounds of Words by Kathy Cobb

11 Jun Sticks and Stones: Overcoming the Wounds of Words by Kathy Cobb

Growing up I was very fearful of getting physically hurt. As a youngster, I was extremely skinny, which meant I did not have a lot of meat on my bones. Because I was a little klutzy, when I fell down I ended up with numerous bruises and scrapes. I can still remember the wounds I received from wiping out on my bright pink bike that had multi-colored streamers coming out of the handlebars! Oh, how I loved to ride that bike! It meant freedom to travel and explore the highways and byways in my neighborhood. I loved exploring! Summer kept my mom busy because I was constantly running home for band-aids and kisses.

However, there were also the bruises that mom could not make better. Along with my fear of getting hurt physically, there were other deep wounds within me. They were the secret hidden ones! Being skinny as a rail was a cross, I had to bear. I was bullied on a daily basis by the boys in my neighborhood. The name-calling was devastating to my little spirit, so the fear of being emotionally hurt deepened. There was a simple saying back then that said sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. These words were not true for this young girl. The words became stones that broke my tender heart and sticks that made it bleed.

I grew up in the sixties and it was during that time Twiggy became an international symbol of beauty. She was skinny, flat-chested, and mod. However, her style seemed to work only for her (or the British models). The skinny girls quickly learned that Twiggy was the only true beauty. You should have seen us wearing the Twiggy like clothes and false eyelashes! Yet no matter what the skinny girls wore or did, we remained the wallflowers of our generation. By my sophomore year of high school, my body slowly began to fill out, so I was able to function and feel some sense of belonging. I made new friends, and I was able to lead a fairly normal high school life. However, years of name-calling really took a toll on my confidence and self-worth. No matter how many times someone told me I was pretty, I always filtered it through the voices of the neighborhood boys of my youth. It took me over 25 years to truly believe that I was beautiful. As I look around today, I still see women struggling with voices from their pasts. The faces may have faded, but now the voices have names like too skinny, too fat, unwanted, not appreciated, not beautiful, not educated enough, not whatever the list goes on and on! Mix it with today\s 21st-century version of the perfect Twiggy and now we have both young women and grown women trapped listening to the same voices just with different disguises.

There’s an old 70’s song that goes like this:

Sign signs everywhere a sign

Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind

Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign

You are probably wondering why I would reference a song about signs. Hurtful words, for some, can become like powerful signs that cause you to believe a lie, blocking out the real truth about who you really are in God’s eyes.

God’s signs go something like this:

Beautiful and Wonderfully Made

My Darling One

You Were Created for a Purpose

In God’s world, he sees you as an individual that he created to be loved and celebrated. His desire is to remove the sticks and stones from your heart so you can enjoy who you are and also be a carrier of His sign Beautiful and Wonderfully Made!

Over the next few months in my blog, I will be sharing my journey of discovering how God brought me out of the feeling like an ugly duckling to how he sees me, which is beautiful and wonderfully made!

I would love to hear back from you about your journey and how God has touched your life!

Kathy Cobb is the founder of GWG – Gabbin With The Girls ™, a global friendship and events organization. Kathy is passionate about connecting women through the gift of friendship. As an inspirational coach and motivational speaker Kathy inspires and empowers women to embrace life to the fullest! For more information contact Kathy atKathy@gabbingirls.com To learn more go about GWG- Gabbin The Girls ™ and events go to www.gabbingirls.com.