Time for us to start using a new dictionary
I don’t understand hate.
I don’t understand the vitriol that is taking place daily.
We need a new dictionary in every aspect of life.
There are words which we use far too often.
This is not about Blue Lives Matter or Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter.
It is a heart thing – always has been and always will be.
What comes out of our mouths starts in our hearts.
As I have quoted many times in this column, “Your attitude is like the aroma of your heart. If your attitude stinks, it means your heart’s not right.”
We choose negativity because it’s easier for us.
We want to blame the teacher, the coach, the boss, the world and whatever else we can think of.
We cannot look in the mirror and have a serious conversation with ourselves.
I don’t understand the lack of conversation.
Conversations become confrontations too easily.
I don’t understand that when a student gets a “D” it is the fault of the teacher and not the student.
Responsibility.
Accountability.
Just, you know, be good.
The world has to laugh at us because of what’s going on with our election.
They have to be dumbfounded when they read what’s coming out from both sides of the aisle.
If you asked them to use a word to describe what’s going on in any part of our country, unity would probably not be in the top 100.
“When it comes to helping people, we often address the surface level of the problem but never get down to the heart of the matter.” – Francis Chan
Being a member of a team is no longer good enough.
Working your way up is no longer good enough.
Biding your time is no longer good enough.
It’s about playing time.
It’s about getting that scholarship, even though approximately 95 percent of high school athletes do not continue their sports careers in college at any level.
Playing Pop Warner football at age 9, our two coaches would smack a kid on the helmet when he messed up – one with a clipboard and the other with a chin strap.
You wanted the clipboard because it didn’t make your ears ring.
I got it one day at practice a lot. And, mostly with the chin strap.
After I got home and showered, dad asked me, “When are you going to stop getting hit on the helmet?”
It was on me, not the coaches.
My father never said a word to my coaches when I played.
And, when he was out of the picture, my mother never said a word to the coaches when I was in high school.
It was all on me.
Kind of refreshing as I look back.
Now, I really appreciate my parents staying away from my coaches.
From Jon Gordon, 7 P’s for Success:
1. People
2. Purpose
3. Passion
4. Positivity
5. Pray
6. Perseverance
7. Process
I don’t understand police officers not being served at restaurants.
I don’t understand what can be inside a person’s heart to think that way.
I don’t understand senseless deaths.
I don’t understand the hatefulness I read in tweets.
I don’t understand getting in Twitter wars.
The venom that is spewed from the tongues of people is utterly disgusting.
And, it really knows no bounds.
It can only come from a hard heart.
It can only come from selfishness.
Do those of you in the stands really hear yourselves?
Are we making our children proud of us?
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words never hurt is nothing but a huge lie.
I’m not talking about people with thin skin.
I’m talking about people who go to a level of maliciousness that is head-turning.
“Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” – Proverbs 21:23
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” – Ephesians 4:29
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
“There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” – Proverbs 12:18
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” – Psalm 141:3
“Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” – Psalm 34:13
It’s hard for me to wrap my head around what comes out of the stands during a high school football game.
Why the wives of head coaches sit in the stands is beyond me.
And, you can add the parents of the quarterback.
The verbiage that spews is nothing more than a bad place in the heart.
You see, parents, we would never allow coaches to speak to us about the way we raised our kids in the same manner we talk to them about how they coach our kids.
We wouldn’t stand for it.
Yet, it seems to be just fine if we start the word sewage.
We need a new dictionary in this country.
We can’t post a simple political statement on Facebook without getting smacked from either side of the aisle, and sometimes it’s both.
The pure hatefulness that I see on tweets to women are rather disgusting, and it’s a pretty good guess those hitting send have some women in their life they would never allow to be spoken to in that manner.
Yet, it seems OK on social media.
Don’t hit send.
A simple conversation seems to be a thing of the past.
We take things way too personal and we look for things that just aren’t there.
We see things like how many parts of the country have come together to help the people and high schools in West Virginia devastated by the floods. Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher (both born in West Virginia) used their power within their respective states to help the high schools who lost everything.
We saw a level of humanity come together on 9/11, and no one cared about skin color, political views, religious beliefs or backgrounds.
Yet, in a very short time, that was gone, too.
We watch 3-year-olds play together because they can. They don’t care about anything but playing together and laughing.
They don’t see color.
They don’t see hate.
They don’t see anything bad.
They don’t see someone they want to hurt, maim or kill.
They see someone they want to play with.
They see smiles, and we hear laughter.
Can we please start using that dictionary?
(Mathison, a Weirton resident, is the sports editor for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. He can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com and followed on Twitter @HSDTsports)