You're always going to have people like that in your life

Even with purple, ill fitting teeth, I love this girl!

I have to admit.  I was shocked, hurt, angry, sad the day my first child came home and said someone wasn't being nice to them.  Not just a "not nice" that she could easily fix the problem herself but "not nice" to the point of being bullied.  That was a wake up call for me. 

From the moment we have our babies, we desire for them to have the best and be the best.  We automatically go to thoughts of "WOW, this baby could make a HUGE difference someday!"  We raise them with the values and morals that, we believe, Jesus wants them to have.  We want our kids to obey and honor us, their parents, but want them to obey and honor Jesus even more. Jesus doesn't just want you to be "nice" to everyone, He wants you to "love" everyone.  The "love" part is much harder to do than the "nice" part.

For a little bit now, our 7 year old, Reagan, has been having trouble with another girl from school.  To make it even harder for Reagan, this girl lives and has mutual friends in our neighborhood.   Our Reagan is an emotional little girl.  She has been blessed with the ability to learn well and easily.  I love those qualities of Reagan, but not everyone does.  We have had numerous talks about this situation.  While I'm not shocked anymore about this (going through this with my older kids has somewhat prepared me), I still am sad and sometimes angry. 

I had enough of this last weekend.  At our dinner time, I announced that I am going to call this girl's parents and discuss this situation with them.  My husband quickly said that was not the best way to go (I was once again reminded why God gave Tim to me..he balances me so well).  One of Reagan's sisters said "I am NOT going to toilet paper their house the next time I DO NOT go out after dark" Again, Tim shot this idea down too.  We left the table with heavy hearts.

Later, I walked in on Tim and Reagan talking.  He told her that there is always going to be kids like this girl in Reagan's life.  Reagan needs to learn how to handle these type of people.  He confided that there are people like that in his life and also in my life.  THEY ARE ALWAYS GOING TO BE THERE. If we let them, these people will steal our joy just because they see it hurts us and that makes them feel better.   I later talked with her and told her that while we need to be friendly to everyone, we do not need to be friends with everyone.  We always need to be nice to everyone.  Who we have as friends matters because our friends have an immense influence on what we do and say.

Such an amazing little girl!

I'm sitting here and I think how sad I am that my little girl has to go through this.  I can't be there to fight her battles.  Unfortunately, she has battles as young as 7.  I'm so thankful for our family and the closeness we have.  Reagan knows that while she's at school by herself, she's NEVER by herself because we are ALWAYS here for her and will support her with love and prayer.