Bullies

On a train into the city, a woman sat behind two junior high school girls.  They spent their time gossiping and making fun of classmates who didn’t measure up to their standards.

When the train pulled to a stop near the girls’ day school, the lady handed them a note. It read: “You girls are pretty. You have wealth, opportunity, and intelligence. But you are not kind. And without kindness you will not get far in life.”

Indeed.

The Bible says God created people. He made them in His image. He calls each “very good.” So when we come along and call His creation bad, when we deface His people with putdowns and murder them with gossip, slander or a gun, we have a major disagreement with God. And being at odds with the Almighty is no place to be.

A four year old black child left the Jim Crow south with his grandmother for a better life in Michigan. The year? 1935. The child missed his mama so badly he began to stutter. School children made fun of him. For eight years the child went mute, fearful of ridicule.  A high school English teacher got him speaking again by having him read poetry aloud.

He went on to the University of Michigan to major in theater. We know him today as James Earl Jones, the iconic voice of our generation in cinema, radio, and television. And to think he might have been crushed by bullies.

Parents, teach your children well. Teach them to do what a local football quarterback did for a little autistic boy eating alone in the cafeteria, subject to snickering taunts from students. The quarterback sat with the lad and they ate lunch together.

Oh, mean kids may go far in high school, but not in life. God is watching. And we show our maturity and respect for God in how we treat the weak.

The Reverend Stephen Crotts is pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Charlotte Court House, VA. Pastor Crotts may be reached at carolinastudycenter@msn.com.