My Son is Being Bullied

 

So, I’ll just go ahead and be upfront and honest about it.  My son is being bullied.

 

And it’s been going on for some time.  I didn’t even hear about it from my son.  I heard about it from the teacher.

 

When I first asked my son about it and he looked down at the ground and said, “yeah.” in this quiet, sad voice, my heart just hurt.  My mama bear instinct saw visions of grabbing up those two boys and just shaking them. My heart hurt worse as he described what was going on and said he just didn’t know what do to.  I didn’t know what to do at that moment either.  So, I asked if I could pray for him.  He said yes, we prayed, and he slowly walked away.

 

We talked to our son about a variety of possible responses.  We talked to the teacher about a variety of solutions.  We prayed.

 

That was two months ago.

 

IT hasn’t stopped.  In fact, it’s gotten worse.

 

It hurts just thinking about this.  It hurts to write about it and see these things on the screen.

 

The other day, after another conference with the teacher and then talking to a close friend, my husband and I sat down to discuss it.

We both decided we don’t know exactly what to do. We decided just to wait a bit longer and pray more. Since then, my heartache for my son hasn’t stopped.

 

But God has revealed how His hand is in this. But God…

 

Ever since the last conference with the teacher, Matthew 5:44 has been impressed upon me.

 

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

 

Nope, I did not want to do this.  Nor did I want to tell my son to do it, despite that was what the Lord clearly wanted.  However, after procrastinating for two days, an opportunity came up for my son and I to talk about this.  Without even really thinking about what I was going to say, I grabbed a Bible and showed him the verse.  He said he wanted to pray for them.

So we prayed. We prayed hard.

 

Blessing #1: Learning how to truly pray for others.

 

My son is not very confrontational.  I have to ask him about these things.  He doesn’t like to talk about them.  But every. Single. Time. At the end of whatever happened that day he says (and names have been changed here), “Joey, Andy, and Will stood with me” or “Joey, Andy, and Will told Jimmy and Jason to cut it out” or “Joey, Andy, and Will said ‘let’s go do this instead’”.

 

Blessing #2: Friendship.  The Lord has blessed my son with friends who will stand up for him and stand beside him during hard times.  These boys are eight. I don’t even think they understand how important their actions are.  But my son is starting to.  And I definitely do.

 

It is my prayer now that, out of this experience, a better, fuller understanding of God’s grace, God’s mercy, and the kindness of others is what my sons is going to walk away with.

Dear Lord, please bless Jack’s time at school, guiding his path, creating opportunities for him to be a light for You and experience Your love as well. Open his heart and mind to receive the lessons and blessings You desire for him. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

How have you dealt with bullying?

Any tips or advice you’d share with another mother?