Sticks and Stones......

Remember the old expression you used to hear as a child, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"? Our moms would tell us that to try to ease the pain of siblings or peers who would tease us or make fun of us. But we know the truth is, physical wounds heal much faster than the wounds on our hearts.

If we had to choose someone hitting us over calling us a hurtful name, we'd probably choose being hit. It would hurt for a few moments, maybe even a day or two, but would eventually fade. The names people call us stay in our minds forever. And they come back to taunt us - when we fail at something, when we're tired but can't sleep, when we're feeling discouraged. You know the ones - loser, ugly, failure...

Sometimes it can be so hard to block out those voices that tell us we've failed again, we'll never amount to anything. God's Word tells us that we are justified before Him, so who can condemn us (Romans 8:33-34, Isaiah 50:9). Satan, who is called the "accuser" (Rev. 12:10) and "a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44) is the one who calls us names and tries to make us believe them . We have a choice about who we will listen to. The words of a song by Casting Crowns encourage me:

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy[girl], you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth (1)

It is a choice! We CHOOSE who to listen to and who to believe. Who will you listen to? The one who is a liar and the father of lies, or the One who IS Truth (John 14:6). I choose Truth.

RS

1 Written by Mark Hall and Steven Curtis Chapman (c) 2003 Club Zoo Music/SWECS Music Admin by Club Zoo Music/BMI/Sparrow Song/Peach Hill Songs admin by EMI Christian Music Publishing/BMI

DIGGING DEEPER
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

UPCOMING EVENT
May is fast approaching and we will be hosting our 2nd annual Family Freedom Walk on Saturday, May 8th. You can help in two ways. 1. walk - call guest services to obtain a walk package, solicit sponsors and come to the walk. 2. (this is a fun one) Sponsor Victory Call for the walk. We are having a friendly competition between the 2 groups of devotional readers (Freedom Fighters and Victory Call). Our goal is to raise more funds for the Victory Call team than the men raise for the Freedom Fighter's team. If you would like to join the fun, simply go to this link on our website https://01.secure.elexio.com/donations.aspx?id=366346&websiteurl=http://www.americaskeswick.org&siteid=2184 fill out the information and indicate in the "DESIGNATION" area : Family Freedom Walk: Victory Call or if you prefer make your check out to America's KESWICK and put in the memo line: FFW/Victory Call and mail to : America's KESWICK 601 Route 530 Whiting, NJ 08759. ALL DONATIONS MUST ARRIVE NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, MAY 5TH in order to be counted for our TEAM. Come on ladies, we can do it!!!