E GET WHERE E TOUCH

 Hi there!

Let me start by apologizing for sending out this post in a Friday instead of Thursday, yesterday was very chaotic for me and in the midst of the running around I did, I actually thought I had posted here; it occured to me just a few minutes ago that I actually hadn't. I'm so sorry about that. But I hope you're good and all is well with you. Welcome to today's gist. 

There's a little girl in my church, a very bubbly child with very beautiful and warm smiles, and a bit of a smart mouth actually and I was drawn to her, I love her a lot actually. Her name is Success. One day she comes to church and she isn't her normal bubbly self, it didn't take anything for me to find out what happened; during the week, her mum had cut her hair and she now sported a "low-cut" hair style, I tried to find out what happened but I couldn't quite get it, all I knew was that having her hair cut off affected her confidence, she no longer played and talked as she used to and she kept looking at other children, her older sister included, with their braided or styled hairs and running her hand over her low-cut hair, and it really broke my heart to see that. First thing I did was to show her that I had also cut my hair and we were alike, and still beautiful in spite of having short hair. It's taken over two months and last Sunday was the first time I saw her returning to her old bubbly self and all the while, I've been thinking "does this girl's mother know how much she hurt this girl's self esteem by cutting her hair?" And I knew that she didn't, but it did and at such a little age where the child is so impressionable, this is likely to stick with her for a large part of her life. 

The lesson I've learned from Success' reaction to having her hair cut off is that too often we act and forget to consider what effect our actions, and words, have on the recipient. As a result, we've scarred people probably for the rest of their lives, trust me I'd know, there are quite a number of these incidents that have stuck with me from my childhood and it's taking the grace of God to help me break out from them. This is not only restricted to children, even adults are susceptible to having their self esteem battered, though not as much as children. There's a principle in the Law of Torts that says "take your victim as you find them" meaning that as individuals, we are all different in how things affect us, so even if something would typically not affect another person, the law will always accommodate individual frailties. I feel that is a great way to go through life, just because something you say or do will not affect other people, you shouldn't assume everyone in the entire world will not be affected negatively by your words or actions. 

Make we sha dey careful as we interact with people, the key is the fact that people should be edified for having met us and not out down. So I'm encouraging you, and myself , to be careful not to chip off the armour of those we interact with by our words or how we relate with them.

I really hope you found this meaningful, till we meet next week!

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS, don't forget to leave a comment, thank you!