He was “the cute guy” in my circle of my friends. He had “that” hair, the great personality, was a Christian, and could sing and play guitar. What wasn’t to like? I remember going to a youth event one afternoon with my sister. There were hundreds of kids there, but I wanted to hang out with “our group,” particularly ‘cause Mr. Awesome would be there. When we first walked in, I saw him far off with everyone else. They saw me and I immediately headed over. Everyone was laughing and joking, and I figured we were about to have an amazing time.
As I got closer I realized that they weren’t welcoming me, and while they were joking it was far from funny. See, they had recently found out about my tic condition, Tourette syndrome, and thought it would be hilarious to mock my twitches when I walked up. I was humiliated and wanted to cry, so I looked over at you-know-who hoping he would notice, bail me out, tell them to quit. He looked at me and blurted out, “Retard!” starting the laughter all over again.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I wish homeboy had some Annie F. Downs in his life. Yes, this book may be for girls, but let’s be real: everyone’s going to love it and the whole universe can relate to it. We’ve all heard someone say something mean, or maybe thought it or said it ourselves, or maybe even been the victim of cruel words. It’s a moment where we realize that what we say isn’t just random words flying out of our mouths but the chance to either build someone up or completely tear someone down. It may sound cliché, but the words that we choose on a daily basis really do affect others. (And not just people that hear the words! Saying things behind someone’s back is also uncool.) And in the long run, the things we say can also change us too. The cool part is, the choice is ours. We can choose to let our words be those that make us feel good for the moment but wreck the heart of someone else, or we can use the words that mirror the kind we could hear our Savior say!
Annie has a challenge for you—for me, for us—to let our words speak hope, truth, joy, peace … we gotta speak love.