Wednesday’s Child Revisited

Wednesday’s Child Revisited, November 14, 2013

I remember a poem my Mom recited frequently as I grew up. It was a poem about the days of the week. I remember Mom telling me that I was the Wednesday’s child in the poem, born on Wednesday and that Wednesday’s child was full of woe, which explained my “condition”. I don’t know when that started, or when it became a “truth” for me. I knew who I was. Here is the poem:

Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 309-10.

So…..there I was, born on Wednesday, a child full of woe, and growing up with the teaching of that song by my Mom, who would often refer to it, well, every time I was sad or cried.

I realised it still hurt me when she said it to me in a conversation on the phone when I was in my 50’s

I later shared it with my sister who said to me “So, how do you think I feel? I was Sunday’s Child?”

And we both realized this was not a godly thing and needed to be let go. It had kept us both in bondage.

I realized, with her love and encouragement, as I still cried tears over this, that I was no longer Wednesdays Child, but had been reborn as Tuesday’s child, full of the grace of God.

We laughed. We hugged.

And I was set free!

That’s the power of the spoken word, the power of the tongue to curse and to bless. We each have that power.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof“. (Proverbs 18:21)

What will we do with our tongues? Use them to curse? Use them to bless?

I’ve found that it’s hard for wounded people to bless, unless they have experienced healing themselves. With healing comes blessing, and blessing shared.

With the help of my precious younger sister, as we met in that hotel room in my 50’s, I finally understood that because of Jesus, because of my relationship with God through Christ, I am no longer Wednesday’s Child, no longer this child of woe, but by being born again of God I am now, as the poem goes, Tuesdays Child, full of grace, the love and grace of the God who saved me, and THAT is a thing of JOY! A thing to celebrate!

I found something online pertaining to this that I’d like to share with you. The title caught my attention. “Child of Woe”. This man’s life was much harsher than mine and he has a very powerful story to tell. Please take time to listen.

**Maury’s story

The reasons were different, of course, but the answer was the same. What a story. What a wonderful God..

We all have things to face from our childhood, some more than others. I know that I did not face some of the “demons” from mine until late in life, I had to learn that these childhood “messages” I had applied to myself as a result of receiving them were not who I was, and that I needed to accept who I NOW was in Christ. I had to replace each of those hurtful things with its healthy counterpart in Christ. For example, the thing about me being Wednesdays child, full of woe (from my Mother’s oft used poem about the days of the week), had to GO and be replaced with me being Tuesday’s child, full of GRACE, because now I am in Christ and His grace covers me completely.

I don’t know you, or your story, but I am sure of one thing. You may have been rejected in life, but you are ACCEPTABLE to God, and He LOVES you 🙂

❤ ❤ ❤