The Bully

I was 13-years-old and loved having my own room. Finally. I had been sharing a room with my messy younger sister for years, and I finally convinced my mom to let me move into the smaller bedroom. I promised to always keep it clean, which she had a hard time believing because of the state of the current bedroom I partially occupied. “I promise. I’m not the messy one here. Just let me prove it to you.” She eventually relented, and I moved into my own bedroom for the first time ever!

I loved my litle sanctuary. I spent lots of time in my special place. And…yes…I did keep it clean. Being somewhat of a neat freak enabled that to be an easy promise to keep. Until one day…

I neglected to mention that it wasn’t just my sister and me. We had a brother that fell in between our ages. During those days, he was a bit of a…well, let’s say…bully! (Hard to believe he now pastor’s a thriving midwest church. See…God CAN do anything!) Anyway… as was his custom, he looked for ways to get to me and my sister…to make us angry or upset. He succeeded a lot with my sister. However, with me, he rarely succeeded, because I stayed tucked away in my sanctuary – out of his view quite often. This particular day, however, he went just a little too far. Out of sheer spite, he entered my room and with one swipe of his arm, he cleared everything off my desk – all my papers, books, and breakable trinkets. I was livid. Something welled up in me out of nowhere, and my brother must have noticed the look on my face was unlike anything he had ever seen from me. As a result, he took off…running as fast as he could…out of the house.

I had enough of his bullying. I didn’t chase after him. I simply did one thing. I locked the door behind him. He was locked out of the house…for hours. My mother was at work, and I knew he would get to spend the better of the day outside with no lunch, no water, no connection to my sister and I. It might sound a little harsh, but I’d had enough.

I thought back to this incident earlier today. I’m being bullied again. Actually, our whole family is being bullied. But not by my brother this time.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 NIV

We are definitely under attack through my husband’s recent job crisis. There’s no doubt about it. We feel as if we’ve simply been blindsided throughout this whole ordeal. At the same time, we know that this battle is not ours. Satan simply has a target on us. He has a target on any family that lives to serve God. That’s this world, folks. It’s his for just a short time, and he knows it. The heat has been turned up, but we will not get burned. As we go through this fire, it will not overtake us. Job or no job at the end of this week, we’ll still praise the One who fights these battles on our behalf. We’ll still serve Him. We’ll still love Him.

As for our bully. The door is locked. He can’t get in. He has no place here, and we’ve had enough!