I have the song "Speak Life" by Toby Mac stuck in my head. Unfortunately, I don't know any of the words beyond the refrain, so I'm sitting here humming the same few lines over and over and over. Does that ever happen to you?
Anyway, I was talking to my sister and somehow we got on the topic of high school mean girls. You know the ones - not as bad as Regina in the movie - but the ones that you remember with the perfect hair? The ability to make any boy stutter? The fear they put in the hearts of all? The unwritten rules of where you could sit in the cafeteria?
Now, I was pretty fortunate that my grade didn't have A mean girl. I mean, there was definitely different crowds of people, but there isn't anyone in my mind that I could point to and think, "She was awful." My sister was not so lucky. They had a group of girls who were "plastic" from their fake tans to their dyed hair to their parents' credit cards. These girls? They are why I get really annoyed by teens when I go to the mall, which I only go to if I really need something.
These teens are not just found in a suburban, middle class public school. They can be found in private schools (just ask my mom about "the clique" back in her day at a religious private school), public schools, inner city schools and rural schools. I have friends from college who went to rural schools where you fed cows before class. Somehow the mean girls still had time to get all gussied up before class. Steve could tell you about the mean girls he sees in his inner city classes that exude an aura of "I'm cooler than you".
Where do these girls come from? No idea. I'm kind of guessing that their moms were the mean girls before them and somehow it's genetic. Or maybe it's just that they are in that group? No clue.
However, I really, really, really hope that my daughter (who is due in 2 weeks!!!) never ever acts like that. I hope she always speaks life to others. That never a mean word passes from her mouth to another's ear. I also don't want her to be a push-over, but to stand up for herself when the time is right with the appropriate words. Mostly, I hope that she'll be a more eloquent speaker as a teen than her mother was, who regularly stuck her foot in her mouth (and still does on occasion). Words should be used for encouragement, not cutting another person down.
Raise your thoughts a little higher,
Use your words to inspire,
Joy will fall like rain,
When you speak life with the things you say. - Toby Mac Lyrics from KLOVE
Let's all try and speak a little more life today and every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment