Marsha Bartulec – Erie, Colorado … In Chapel on January 5 at the Vista Ridge Academy in Erie, Colorado, we discussed being wise with our words.
Have you ever done the toothpaste lesson? I stood up front with a tube of Colgate toothpaste and squeezed it all out onto a paper plate, rolling the tube to squeeze out as much as I could. I showed the students my accomplishment of squeezing all the toothpaste out.
Afterwards, I asked our student body president to come up and help me, which she graciously obliged. I asked her to take the plastic spoon I was holding and to use it to scoop up the toothpaste and put as much as she could back into the tube. I offered to hold the tube, and she began trying to get the paste back into the tube.
After trying for a minute with no success, I asked for two more students to come and help. They sure did try! We thanked them for their help, and they went to sit down. I took the toothpaste and tube around showing the students how much they were able to get back in; maybe just a tiny amount, but you could not tell any toothpaste got back into the tube.
This month for our Eagle Way initiative, we are focusing on Honor. How can we show honor in different spaces of our building to our classmates, friends, and teachers?
One way we can show honor is through our words. I asked seven students to come up front (one from each classroom) to hold a whiteboard on which I had written unkind words. They revealed the unkind words one by one. Examples included, “you’re not my friend,” “go away,” and “you’re annoying.”
In the book Kindness Grows, author Britta Teckentrup writes, “friendships can be damaged by a mean or ugly word. Once it has been spoken, it cannot be unheard. Words of encouragement, sweetness, warmth, and care, blossom, grow, and flourish as they spread love everywhere.”
Psalm 51 is an expression of repentance. David, the greatest of Israel’s kings, fell into serious sin and recognized his need to plead with God for forgiveness. Proverbs 25:11 says, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.
The Prophet Nathan came to David to tell him what he did was wrong. He was not mean but told a story instead. His words were wise. David asks God in Psalm 51:10 to create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Earlier in verse 7, he asks God to wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
It is my prayer that we will use kind words and uplift one another. Like toothpaste, we cannot take our unkind words back. However, like King David, we can ask for forgiveness. We can choose to show honor to others.
—Marsha Bartulec is the principal of Vista Ridge Academy. Photo by Ann Zzz of Pexels.
