Sticks and Stones is an English-language children’s rhyme.  “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words shall never hurt me.” The rhyme is used as a defense against name-calling and verbal bullying, intended to increase resiliency, avoid physical retaliation, and/or to help one remain calm.

Never before, since I have been an adult, have I seen and heard daily, the mean and cruel things that adults have said to and about each other without provocation.  It is encouraged, and endless. The sad part of it is that our laws that have been around since the 1800’s, called slander if spoken, and libel if written do not seem to help prevent it.  Every now and then the the law helps.

Michael Mann, a professor of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of PA, has been awarded more than 1 million in damages after a trial in D.C. court. Michae Mann, among the world’s renowned climate scientists, won a defamation case in the D.C. Superior Court against two conservative writers. Feb 8, 2024.

Yet, for the most part, little is done to decrease it. Perhaps when this rhyme was conceived it was meant for children and not adults. It was once thought that children had the inner strength to ward off any hurt that was not physical. Now we know better.  

Several scriptures warn against such behavior. The Galatian believers had fallen into the habit of hurting one another with unkind words, so Paul warns, “If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” Galatians 5:15).

In the book of Proverbs, we are taught to never take the impact of words lightly, “For the tongue has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). What we say can either lift up or crush another. At its worst, cruel words can be a factor contributing to death. More especially if they are lies.

James describes how all types of animals have been tamed, but the tongue has never been tamed (3:6). It is uncontrollable apart from God. Then, he calls it a “restless evil” and a “deadly poison.” When calling it a “restless evil,” James is saying that the tongue never sleeps, and therefore, we must always be on guard with it.