Soul Stitches
Our words and the people closest to them.
Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy prince in a vast kingdom. His word was law, so there was nothing he could not have.
One stormy night, he threw a party in his opulent castle. A poor old woman came to the door seeking shelter, offering a rose as a gift.
Repulsed by her appearance, the prince turned the woman away. To his dismay, she suddenly transformed into a beautiful enchantress.
Because there was no love in the Prince’s heart, the enchantress turned him into a monstrous beast.
This is the story of Beauty and the Beast. The Prince is cursed to stay a hideous beast unless he can learn to love another and earn their love in return.
This tale reminds us to seek the inner beauty in people. Especially the people society rejects. But it can also be a reminder to appreciate the inner beauty of those it’s easiest to forget that we love.
The way we can appreciate a persons inner beauty is by respecting them.
This can be the hardest to do with the people we are closest to because the better we know a person, the more subtly (and painfully) we can disrespect them.
It’s the husband rolling his eyes at his wife in front of the dinner party for getting part of the story wrong.
It’s the wife going on about how handsome another man is while her husband is sitting right next to her.
It’s the friend making her friend the butt of the joke to illicit a laugh.
It’s the daughter scoffing at her mom for not knowing “how things work nowadays.”
(I am guilty of at least a couple of these.)
Blatant disrespect can crush a person, but subtle disrespect erodes them.
Fortunately, this works in the opposite direction too. There are subtle ways we can build a person up that can have a greater impact than we realize. The closer we are to them, the more intentionally we know how to encourage them.
It’s the husband who reminds his wife her hair is beautiful when he knows she’s self conscious about it going gray.
It’s the wife who praises her husbands work ethic when he makes less money than his peers but works as if it’s for God.
It’s the friend bringing up stories of her friend’s best moments because she knows they wouldn’t be brought up otherwise.
It’s the daughter patiently explaining to her mom why kids these days do these crazy things.
A thousand cuts can kill, but a thousand stitches help heal.
Our words are a needle. They can puncture anew or they can sew back together.
We all need stitches in one way or another. With the love in our hearts, let us choose to sew.