Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones, But What????

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard or said this is my 48 years.  Lately I have been thinking about this and wondering what kind of a person would ever say such a thing.  Let's look at it from three different points of view.
Number one, let's take a child; a child that is constantly told that they aren't worth anything.  Hearing this day in and day out has finally forever cemented in this child's head that they are a nobody.  What are the results of this? It results in an adult that feels like they are worth nothing.  And, sadly, sometimes it doesn't stop there.  This adult  sometimes passes these words on to their children or spouse, and these words that were started by one person affect many.
Number two, let's take a woman about to get married...raised in a good home, but due to bad choices, she marries a man that constantly puts her down.  She can do nothing right, according to him and she is constantly criticized for pretty much anything she does.  She is either too fat, too skinny, too ugly, too short, an awful cook, a bad lover, terrible mother...the list is endless.  Because of this she can never be the woman that she was meant to be.  Afraid that others will see her awful attributes, she makes no friends, and of course could not go so far as to get a job and be in the public..how could she ever be successful.
Number three, let's take a student who is trying so hard to keep his grades up, but is struggling beyond belief.  What may take one hour of homework a night for other students, takes him four or five.  Striving to be the same as anyone else, he just wants to make average grades to stay above water, but feels he is sinking under the weight of it all.  Unfortunately, this student has gotten a teacher that sees his grades as failure.  Not once does this teacher take time out of his busy schedule to help this student catch up.  Instead, he is pegged as a lazy, no good, who should be held back because he doesn't care about his grades.  No reason to include him in the classroom activities; He's too stupid to understand anyway. The student's point of view?  No reason to finish school and college is out of the question.  A job?  Who would hire someone who can't even make it through school?
These are only three examples of what a few insults can do to a person...the tongue is surely sharper than any two-edged sword, that's for sure.  If anyone wants to take up a challenge, see how many people in one day that you can send a compliment too, whether it be a stranger or picking up the phone to tell someone how much they are appreciated.  You'd be surprised how much better you feel doing it too...what a reward!!