Remember when it was considered vanity to take pictures of yourself. Toss that notion out of the window. I’m amazed how many people take pictures looking in the mirror. Do you think they wanted to have their picture taken so badly that they couldn’t wait for someone else to do it? I don’t think that it is the case because sometimes there is more than one person in the picture. These past several years, selfies have invaded our lives and become all the craze.
I recall when selfies were just emerging. A selfie is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” Although the word selfie made its advent by an inebriated man in Australia in 2002, who fell, busted his lip, took a self-portrait and sent it his friends labeling it as such, it has gained more popularity within the last several years. Now millions take selfie photographs and post and send them everywhere. They have even gotten some high-profile people in trouble.
Words fascinate me primarily because they appear to have a life of their own. I think that we take them for granted because they are a part of our everyday vernacular. We use them without much deliberation about their origin or their impact. We may hear someone use a word and over time it becomes a part of our everyday usage, like selfie has done.
It is fascinating watching children learn new words. Parents are so excited when they say their first words which are usually “Mama” or “Dada”. The way the parents act you would think they have just given the presidential address. Quickly young children evolve from the one word chants impressing their parents to incessant chatter causing the parents to say, “Could you please be quiet?” Weren’t these the same people who were ecstatic that this child identified them?
Words invade our lives in such a way that we are not aware of their invasion. I’m always intrigued about the algorithms of words and how they appear to attract each other. This law of attraction has become more apparent over time. I may say a word or may be reading, and all of a sudden someone on television will say the exact word. This has happened too many times for it to be a mere coincidence and sometimes it is such an odd word that it makes me say, “Uhmmm.”
Our words have power. Life and death are inherent in words. We’ve all heard that whatever you say is what you will attract. There is something to be said about the words we use and how we use them. Like a selfie, our words illustrate a snapshot of who we are for all the word to see. In essence, we are what we speak. Negative words result in a negative snapshot; as positive words result in a positive one. You determine the snapshot of yourself. Do you want a dirty mouth or a clean one?
The usage of profanity has become so widespread that the notion of proper etiquette was thrown out the window a long time ago. From the young to the old you hear expletives hurled like nobody’s business. These profane babblings have a negative effect on our lives. It appears as though we have become insensitive to them as more and more people, regardless of age, race, gender or ethnicity, cavalierly toss them around.
I’ve become very sensitive to the words I use, even in idle conversation. Our words frame our world and they are a representation of the image we want to project. Our daily vernacular either builds us up or destroys us. Faith words bring life and fear-based words don’t. It is as simple as that.
What selfie will you snap today? Negative or positive? Life or death? Faith or fear?
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God has poured his love into us and in turn He asks that we spread that same love to others. The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind and soul. And, the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is interesting to know that God instructed us to love ourselves. Wouldn’t you think that this would be as natural as breathing? But it is not.
