Choose Your Words
People of the world, let me just make an announcement. I have legitimate concerns that I was either adopted, switched at birth, or fell from the sky. I have no idea where I came from. If you know anything about me, you know that I am 189% girly girl. My momma is essentially my polar opposite. Every story of our family history relates back to sports. “That was the year we played [so and so] in the play offs, and in the third quarter [such and such] play happened, and we beat them by [however many] points.” Like, really Mom?
This adoption theory becomes even more apparent each year at Super Bowl time. My favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day followed by Christmas. My mom’s favorite holiday is the Super Bowl. So it should come as no surprise that this year’s Super Bowl Sunday went a little something like this…
Me sitting bored in front of the fireplace scrolling through social media dreading the rest of the day tuned into football coverage and looking over and seeing my mom WEEPING, literally WEEPING, over pre-game stories. What in the world? I just could not even deal.
However, in an effort to partake in some mother-daughter bonding (we don’t do shopping and pedicures in this family…), I tried to focus in on some of what was being shown. And I’m not too proud to admit that even I got a little teary eyed for one of the segments.
Throughout the pre-game, they told stories of people who were selected to receive tickets to the Super Bowl based on their life story. One particular kid was a football player with only one arm. Tyler Sampson was greeted at a pep rally at his middle school by his favorite NFL player DeMarcus Ware. Sampson had met the NFL player at an event when he was four years old. He asked Ware if he thought he could play football. Ware responded, “Of course, you can.” Clearly, those words meant a tremendous amount to the child as he went on to overcome all the obstacles that might ensue as one attempts such a physical sport with such an incredible handicap. Today, Tyler is a huge part of his middle school football team and works hard to prove himself on the field.
But that’s not what really got me. What was it? As DeMarcus Ware stood before the school and community to give Super Bowl tickets to Tyler, he retold that story. The story of four words spoken to a child he had met nearly a decade prior. Words likely spoken in passing with little consideration to their meaning. And visibly present on Ware’s face was the realization of the importance of the influence of his words. Realization that those words had changed the entire course of a person’s life.
Wow. Just wow.
Daily, we speak to people and often give very little thought to what comes out of our mouth. All the while, our words hold the power for good and for evil. Power to completely change the course of someone’s life… sometimes without us ever knowing the outcome. Today, choose your words. You have no idea the power behind them. You have no idea the influence you may be to someone. Today, I challenge you. Be a DeMarcus for a Tyler…