The Bible calls us to bless those who hurt us, so next I would pray for them. And that seems really hard to do, and at first it is, but I would pray for God to bless them. Although I was hurt by them, I would pray for God to bless them and that they would grow to love Him more and that they would grow in their faith and that they would learn more about Jesus and grow in their relationship with Him or start one if they haven’t had on.
So praying for them, and then another step further is to extend that grace that we have first in Jesus. We don’t deserve grace but Jesus gave us grace anyway. I don’t deserve it, they don’t deserve it, nobody does, but through Jesus we need to offer it. Basically that means letting the person off the hook and showing kindness. Not holding bitterness. Not showing kindness, a very sly way of still being bitter, just by ignoring the person, and that doesn’t really help the matter either. Giving them the cold shoulder or ignoring them or pretending they don’t exist, that doesn’t make the problem better. Doing something mean in return? Obviously that’s not gonna help. But being kind and showing grace to them, and knowing that they’re a person who messed up, you’re a person who messes up, like we all do. So yes, taking our eyes off of the hurt, off of them, off even ourselves and looking unto Jesus.
Crown of Beauty: So do you have any specific advice for girls who are being bullied?
Brooke: Yeah for me something that was huge, I think it was me hearing a word from God, but I heard, “Don’t get bitter, get better.” And I was for a long time I was just in this dark place of bitterness, being bitter towards those people, being like “Well, I’m gonna show them, like they’re gonna regret what they did.” I was bitter.
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