It’s sort of amazing how words affect us.

Amazing in a good way, yeah.

Or amazing in a bad way.

It sort of depends on the words.

Do we really understand this power? This word-power?

I’m not so sure.

Do we know the flippant comment can stay with someone long after we’ve moved on?

Do we know the kind word can heal wounds we don’t even see?

Do we really understand that words have this incredible and amazing staying power?

That they can swim around in someone’s head for days, months, years?

Maybe even longer.

We might. We might know this. We probably do know this, actually. But still, we offer up words that wound.

The thing is, we’re human. We do what we don’t want to do, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes unintentionally.

I’ve been hurt by words. You have too. Some of those words have been quite intentional. And some were probably not.

And yet, we don’t have to stay wounded by them. We don’t have to keep them on auto-play and repeat and hear them over and over.

We can choose better.

Choose moving on. Choose moving past. Choose letting go.

It’s a choice.

Of course it’s a choice.

What else could it be?

I can choose to believe that opinions are facts, that words are always considered carefully, that people are just plain mean.

Or I can choose to believe that opinions are just that. That words sometimes spill out. And that intentions sometimes go awry, but are mostly good.

I can choose to believe that people can be snarky or mean or even cruel because they are human.

And then I can let it go.

I can choose to forgive, give grace, move on.

I can choose freedom.

I can choose peace.

It’s not easy. Of course it’s not easy. Nothing really great is ever easy, right?

But still, I can choose this.

Forgive. Give grace. Move on.

Choose to forgive.

Choose to be free.

~xo,
LuAnne