“What happened, sweetheart?”
Nothing prepared me for hearing the news of my 5-year old getting punched in the eye on the day of our 10th wedding anniversary, unprovoked, by a girl in her class- just days before I had to be deployed to India.
This was the 3rd unprovoked bullying incident by the same girl.
As I cradled Sarah-Faith’s face in my arms, tears gushed down, hot.
For all our talk about not being overcome by evil, but overcoming evil with good (Rom 12:21), I felt challenged in the face this injustice.
But the days that followed only proved harder.
I found myself having to defend my own daughter. Difficult conversations with the new principal, then school board happened. Yet, amidst the chaos, the sleepless nights and the heartbreak, God reinforced 3 things He had taught us from the start. They never changed:
1. Never fight for your rights.
– In this case, we stood up for Sarah-Faith. As we did, we noticed a gentle trust grow in her spirit as she released her rights to God.
– Amidst differing perspectives, we maintained our ground that our goal was not to demand restitution or an apology. We made it clear that our purpose was to highlight a policy gap in the system and work with the school to address it, to prevent future bullying incidents.
– I learnt, focusing on fixing a broken system is better than pointing fingers. And it can happen with calm, non-accusatory voices.
2. Let God fight for you.
– In our case, He did. He sent people from unexpected places to stand in the gap for us when people we expected to protect our child did not.
3. Prayer goes a long way.
– In the midst of the emotional mayhem, many of your messages affirmed our family and steadied our hearts. 💛
Here’s sharing how your messages sowed into our lives. As I read your words of love and encouragement to Sarah-Faith, I literally saw her love tank filled before my very eyes.
Thank you for standing with us. For praying for and cheering us on. Sarah-Faith sends her deep thanks and love to you, to all of you. 🥲🫶🏽