There is an inspirational video showing a blind man sitting on a blanket in a busy town square. Next to him is a sign that reads-“I am blind, please help!” He is mostly being ignored until a young woman stops, picks up his sign, flips it over and writes something. She walks away without a word.
Now, everyone who passes is tossing him coins. At the end of the day she returns. Identifying her by the feel of her shoes, he asks, “What did you do to my sign?” She bends down and places her hand on his shoulder, “Same message, different words.” She walks away.
The camera finally pans to the sign which now reads, “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.” The video ends by saying, “Change your words- change the world.”
This is a principle that I strongly believe in. May I share some of my real life examples?
My daughters and I are going shopping. As soon as we get in the car one daughter says to her younger sister, “If you’re going to wear high water pants, at least roll them up to like capris!” Younger sister is crushed. I softly suggested that she could have said, “Those pants would be really cute if you rolled the legs up.” Change your words, change the world.
Parent teacher conferences this year showed that one of the girls was going to have bad grades in a few classes because of undone work. Her father and stepmother starting listing all the reasons it wasn’t their fault, (the girls live with them during the school year), it was hers. They also began to list the privileges she was about to lose. She’s eleven and she was so overwhelmed by the criticism that she began to crawl under the desk to escape it.
I gently drew her out and showed her all the high grades she was getting for the work she did do. I said, “Look, you are an A student!” The teacher jumped aboard and we told her how smart she was. We pointed out that the only reason for the bad grade was her forgetting to turn it in and suggested some ideas to help her remember. She left the room with her head held high and a resolution to be more responsible. Change your words, change the world.
The most powerful example of this principle involves my husband and his career choices. Before me, he was married to someone else for a long time. He is a truck driver and works long, hard, unpredictable hours. His ex spent years complaining about him never being home. Their three children grew up thinking that he didn’t care enough about them to stay home. They were told and believed that work was all that mattered to him. As adults they still complain about it.
Fast forward to us- I tell my children how hard he works to provide for us and how lucky we are that he cares so much for us. I point out on holidays and birthdays that he would much rather be with us but he is willing to make the sacrifice. We think of creative ways to include him in our day to day life. We stop to see him at work for a few minutes on the Fridays I pick them up from their dad’s. My daughters adore him and feel very loved by him. They have never complained about him never being around. Change your words, change the world.
If you don’t believe me, do your own experiment. For the rest of this week, bite your tongue before letting anything critical or hurtful come out. Take a minute to rephrase what you want to say into a more positive statement. I think that you will be amazed by the difference. Change your words, change the world. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
Now, everyone who passes is tossing him coins. At the end of the day she returns. Identifying her by the feel of her shoes, he asks, “What did you do to my sign?” She bends down and places her hand on his shoulder, “Same message, different words.” She walks away.
The camera finally pans to the sign which now reads, “It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.” The video ends by saying, “Change your words- change the world.”
This is a principle that I strongly believe in. May I share some of my real life examples?
My daughters and I are going shopping. As soon as we get in the car one daughter says to her younger sister, “If you’re going to wear high water pants, at least roll them up to like capris!” Younger sister is crushed. I softly suggested that she could have said, “Those pants would be really cute if you rolled the legs up.” Change your words, change the world.
Parent teacher conferences this year showed that one of the girls was going to have bad grades in a few classes because of undone work. Her father and stepmother starting listing all the reasons it wasn’t their fault, (the girls live with them during the school year), it was hers. They also began to list the privileges she was about to lose. She’s eleven and she was so overwhelmed by the criticism that she began to crawl under the desk to escape it.
I gently drew her out and showed her all the high grades she was getting for the work she did do. I said, “Look, you are an A student!” The teacher jumped aboard and we told her how smart she was. We pointed out that the only reason for the bad grade was her forgetting to turn it in and suggested some ideas to help her remember. She left the room with her head held high and a resolution to be more responsible. Change your words, change the world.
The most powerful example of this principle involves my husband and his career choices. Before me, he was married to someone else for a long time. He is a truck driver and works long, hard, unpredictable hours. His ex spent years complaining about him never being home. Their three children grew up thinking that he didn’t care enough about them to stay home. They were told and believed that work was all that mattered to him. As adults they still complain about it.
Fast forward to us- I tell my children how hard he works to provide for us and how lucky we are that he cares so much for us. I point out on holidays and birthdays that he would much rather be with us but he is willing to make the sacrifice. We think of creative ways to include him in our day to day life. We stop to see him at work for a few minutes on the Fridays I pick them up from their dad’s. My daughters adore him and feel very loved by him. They have never complained about him never being around. Change your words, change the world.
If you don’t believe me, do your own experiment. For the rest of this week, bite your tongue before letting anything critical or hurtful come out. Take a minute to rephrase what you want to say into a more positive statement. I think that you will be amazed by the difference. Change your words, change the world. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
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