“Break your bad labels instead of living in them.”
― Orrin Woodward

When we are born, we are born with a very limited amount of tags.  Boy, girl, given name, and surname.  Basically we are a completely blank slate.

As we grow we are taught how to place labels on others.  Fat, skinny, tall, short, gay, straight, etc.,   We also place labels on ourselves, I’m stupid, ugly, dumb, crazy, we start believing the labels we have placed on ourselves.  Almost a self – fulfilling prophecy. 

Self-fulfilling prophecy refers to the socio-psychological phenomenon of someone “predicting” or expecting something, and this “prediction” or expectation comes true simply because one believes it will, and their resulting behaviors align to fulfil those beliefs. This suggests peoples’ beliefs influence their actions. Wikipedia

Even religion likes to place labels on people.  We place labels on others to make ourselves feel better.

I grew up being called skinny, that I would never be anything, fag, all the names that kids use on the school yard playground.  Yes, I admit I was skinny, when I entered high school I only weighed about ninety-nine pounds.

I went through school feeling inadequate, less than a human.  It wasn’t until I became proficient in my musical skills that I began to feel good about myself.

I traveled around Canada and parts of the States meeting people of all cultures, colors, shapes and sizes.  I never, not once, met two people who were the same.  Oh, they may have similiar characteristics, but as a whole totally different.

When I left active ministry I began to shed all those habits of labeling others. Why, I found that as I began to know the person, I found that maybe the label I would have placed on him or her did not fit. 

I remember a chorus I learned in Sunday School:

Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world,

Red and yellow, black or white,

They are all precious in His sight.

 

I found out that life is not all black & white or even grey.  It truly is all the colors of this world!