Irrelevant Bullying...

It was 8:30, and if the bus was just a little late, we may still make it... and then, she began to cry. Said she wouldn't go on the bus, said she couldn't, and wont ever again go to school ever again. Everything in me wanted to just rush on to the next task, push her out the door, and in the "dutch mom" kind of way tell her to suck it up and popo her fear away.  I needed to be somewhere in 15 minutes, my other kids routine will get knocked right off those tracks, laundry, dishes, packing that purse...

And a still small voice at the center of my being spoke, "Bring her close, snuggle in, hold her tight, listen and hear her small heart."  

The front door closed, and to my knees I fell to hear the gasping cries of my 6 year old baby.  "They all call me fat, no one likes me at school...they say I'm fat!"

Without a word I brought her close, held her, kissed her cheeks, stroked her hair, pulled her into my very spirit, and whispered... "who loves you?" Without hesitation she pointed first up then at me.  "Don't you know that God waited all night for you to open your eyes this morning to see what you would think of first?" Her eyes focused on mine.  "You know that you are so much more important to God than what you look like?"  She nods.  "You ask God what he thinks about you, you don't listen to people... Can I pray for you?"  She nods again...

We can go on about bullies, standing up for our children, teaching them not have any tolerance for such behaviors.  But this issue will continue on for the rest of their lives.  What if it was all irrelevant?  What if we taught our children that instead of listening to peoples praises, or insults, in looking to others approval, we taught them it was ALL irrelevant?  What if we raised a generation of children who look to their creator for their identity?  What if instead of telling our children that they are "big boned" and not fat, we ask them if it matters...  Truth is, it is all irrelevant in the span of eternity.  My child's significance must come from her creator, ONLY he knows who she is, what she will do, and who she will be...  and even none of that matters because of HIS GREAT LOVE...

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not something of this world.  The world will not understand it.  The word is meant to be lived out in truth here, now, and into eternity.  Hunger for eternal eyes that know truth for what it is, and discard anything less.  It is not natural for us to have self esteem.  Hunger for God esteem... always eyes looking up, as he affirms who HE is, and let your identity lie in who He is.  Alpha and Omega, in the beginning and through to the end.  Was, and is and is to come...  He never changes, and so neither will your firm identity because of him.  Choose to have your mind transformed to the likeness of Jesus...  Made in the image of our creator, redeemed to be seen as children of the one and only true God...  

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good

(Genesis 1:27, 31)