“Unkind Words,” Friend, Apr. 1997, 47
Unkind Words
Kindness begins with me (Children’s Songbook, page 145).
I do not like to see people getting teased or laughed at. I feel bad for them when that happens, because I know I wouldn’t like it if that happened to me.
One day I was walking home from school with a friend. As we got to our street, a boy named Mark* was just getting off the school bus. Mark lives nearby, but he goes to a different school. He is overweight. My friend started to call him rude names, like “Chunky” and “Chubby.” Mark pretended not to hear and just walked more quickly toward his house. After he was out of sight, I told my friend that calling him names was not nice. After I got home, I was still upset about it. Even though I had not called him names, I had stood by and let someone else do it.
Early the next morning I went over to Mark’s house and apologized to him for my friend’s calling him names and my not stopping it. After I had apologized to him, I felt much better inside. I hope it made him feel better too.
Savior painting by Ted Henninger
Illustrated by Karen Foster