A thought on bully

I put down Marcus for his morning nap, Benjamin was watching PBS and eating his Nutella sandwich/ strawberries breakfast, I finished folding laundry, washing, drying, putting away the dishes, making the beds, tidying up the house so I felt it was time for me to sit down for a few minutes to eat my breakfast and read my devotional. (Yea, if you are a mama, everything else comes first, and when everything else is taken care of for the moment it is your turn. But only until you are needed again. Probably in the next 10 minutes, hehe)

So anyway, I made my Earl Grey, grabbed my journal and opened up my devotional. I'm doing Our Daily Bread these days. In the craziness I have just enough time to read it and meditate upon it during the day. Today's message was on bullying and on speaking up for the bullied. It talked about how there are actually 3 parties involved in bullying. The one who bullies, the one who is being bullied..and the one who stands by and doesn't speak up in defense of the bullied. I found myself being the stander-byer (is that a word?) in school several times. I didn't speak up. It was safer to hide behind the bullies. I guess I didn't want to become the next one being bullied? There was a girl in my class in elementary school who was always picked on for something. She was an easy target, average looking, didn't wear the latest fashion and her mom came in to the school a few times and threw tantrums over something, yelled at the teachers, that sort of thing. So this didn't really help her unpopularity. I remember, she always sit in the first row, alone, because no one would sit by her. She would NEVER answer back to the mockers, she would just quietly endure whatever we threw at her. She happened to be in my class again for the four years of high school. And guess what happened! The same thing over again! She was the target of our mockery, teasing (brutally), bully but she never once said anything unkind to us. On the contrary. Every time we would ask to copy her homework just before class she would willingly help. What the heck! Thinking back I am so ashamed of being one of the mockers, or if not the mockers, the stander-byers. I never stood up for her, or quieted the bullies, and I called myself a Christian. I grew up in a Christian home and I knew better than that!

Every time I visit home in Hungary I see her working at the supermarket. We chat for a few minutes, just general stuff, nothing personal...but I would like to just give her a hug and apologize for all the hurt we have caused her. The only thing that held me back was a thought, that maybe she wouldn't want to hear that, that it would embarrass her or something li really don't know. Just because it would make Me feel better does not mean that it would make Her feel better too, you know?

Well, I don't have the answers. But I know this, bullying is a terrible thing and I will never stand by without speaking up again. Jesus experienced bullying on the worst degree. They beat him, mocked him, humiliated him...killed him! Yet he endured.

I also wonder...what would happen if I found myself on the bullied side at some point? How would I react? What would I say? Do?