As a little boy, other kids called him names.  They labeled him.  Called him names like “stupid”.  Or they would say things like, “You will never amount to anything.”  The teachers said it was dyslexia.  But all he knew was that his brain didn’t function like everyone else’s.  Somehow he was different — and different was “bad”.  Kids would poke fun at him, bully him.

He’d come home from school crying to his dad and tell him all the bad things that happened.  You would think his Dad would pick him up tenderly and wipe his tears away and tell him everything would be OK.  But his Dad was a military dad — a Marine.  He would tell his son things like, “Big boys don’t cry.”  Because his parents didn’t know what to do, they just ignored it — as if nothing happened.

The little boy learned to hide his emotions, stuff his feelings and HIS TEARS deep inside him.  He made a vow to himself — that he would never let anyone see him cry or make fun of him again.  But in order to stop the tears, he had to stop the pain.  So he learned ways to numb his pain.

That little boy grew up and became a man.  He got married and had kids and everything looked great on the outside.  But deep inside, the wounds and scars from his past pain kept resurfacing.  And he would wonder, “What’s wrong with me?”  “Why do I feel so empty on the inside?”

This little boy needs to know,

“Who will love me for me?  God send someone to love me.”  (JJ Heller in her song, “What Love Really Means”)