The Help

Before we went to see the movie, I made myself read the book.
It wasn't hard to "make myself" because it was a really good book!
There was one portion that I highlighted because it just stood out to me.

"'Mae Mobley? Mae Mobley Leefolt!'
Miss Leefolt just now noticing her child ain't setting in the same room with her. 'She out here with me, Miss Leefolt,' I say through the screen door.
'I told you to eat in your high chair, Mae Mobley. How I ended up with you when all my friends have angels I just do not know...' But then the phone ring and I hear her stomping off to get it.
I look down at Baby Girl, see how her forehead's all wrinkled up between the eyes. She studying hard on something.
I touch her cheek. 'You alright, baby?'
She say, 'Mae Mo bad.'
The way she say it, like it's a fact, make my insides hurt.
'Mae Mobley,' I say cause I got a notion to try something. 'You a smart girl?'
She just look at me, like she don't know.
'You a smart girl,' I say again.
She say, 'Mae Mo smart.'
I say, 'You a kind little girl?'
She just look at me. She two years old. She don't know what she is yet.
I say,'You a kind girl,' and she nod, repeat it back to me. But before I can do another one, she get up and chase that poor dog around the yard and laugh and that's when I get to wondering, what would happen if I told her she something good, ever day?....
...After while, Mae Mobley come over and press her cheek up to mine and just hold it there, like she know I be hurting. I hold her tight, whisper, 'You a smart girl. You a kind girl, Mae Mobley. You hear me?' And I keep saying it till she repeat it back to me."

It never ceases to amaze me the impact that words have on children...people. The way they think of themselves, or think, in general, comes out because of what has been input.

Lord, let us impact a generation that knows their worth because we tell them they are precious. We tell them they are kind. We tell them they are smart. We tell them they are important.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." Proverbs 18:21