A Parable of a Bully

Photo copyright(2015 )(Mary Guest). All rights reserved.

There once was a girl, a very pretty girl. She had a lot of talents, and she had a lot of friends. She was intelligent, athletic and artistic. Everyone liked her and thought she was very sweet. Indeed, this young lady was beautiful inside and out.

Except…she was a bully. No one really knew it because she quietly bullied just this one girl.

This girl was also pretty, but the bully always told her she was ugly and fat.

This girl was intelligent and received very good grades, but the bully said she wasn’t smart. And when the girl did struggle to learn a new concept, the bully told her she would never get it.

The girl liked playing sports, but the bully told her she wasn’t good enough to make the team and didn’t know why the coach even put her in to play.

Whenever the girl got a part in the school play, the bully told her she needed voice lessons to be good enough to be on stage. What was the director thinking?!

The bully told the girl that she didn’t have any friends - no real friends, anyway - that if anyone seemed to be her friend, they were just being nice to her.

After a long time of being bullied, the beautiful, intelligent, and talented young lady began to feel worthless, alone and sad. She believed the bully more than she believed her friends, her family or even God.

You, my daughter, are that beautiful, intelligent, and talented young lady. And you, my daughter, are the bully.

Please, stop bullying yourself! Stop trying so hard to be good enough.

You do not have to prove yourself good enough to your friends or teammates. You don’t have to prove yourself good enough to your teachers or your parents. You don’t have to prove yourself good enough even to yourself.

You see, God created you good enough. As a matter of fact, when he created you, He declared you “very good!”

If you have nothing to prove to the Almighty God, then you do not have to prove anything to anyone else – not even yourself.

So don’t believe the lies Satan is feeding you. He's the real bully. Tell him, “Get behind me, Satan!” Then look up into the heart of Jesus and see Him who loves you so much. God loves you, my daughter, just the way you are, right now, in all your brokenness and pain. He will heal your broken heart, bind up all your wounds and restore you (as promised in Psalm 147). Let Him.

Let yourself feel His love. And let Him teach you to love yourself again.

Know this, too, my dear baby girl, I love you more than I could ever express – just the way you are.