Get your stick back

Today we had our first REAL "bully" incident. These two sweet buddies were playing at the park so sweetly. They had spent almost an hour building an intricate dam over a little creek with rocks, sticks and pinecones. Out of nowhere, this older child (maybe 8 years old), runs over and trashes the entire dam and takes the sticks and runs off saying "These are mine now." Marky and his friend (remember Marky is only 4, his buddy is only 5), chased the boy saying "wait, those are our sticks." When they catch up to the boy, he turns around and starts hitting Marky. He shoves him to the ground pinning Marky on his stomach and the boy is literally punching him in the back with his fists. I, of course, have jumped up and am running over to get this much bigger child off my baby- I think the shock of it all had me frozen for a minute. Next thing I know- Marky literally throws the boy off of him, which knocks him to the ground and Marky grabs his sticks and starts walking back to the creek. He didn't cry, he didn't call me- he just handled the situation. He had successfully fended off an attack by a much bigger boy and he didn't make it personal, he just got his sticks and went back to play. We have always told Marky that God made him extra big to protect people, and today he protected himself.

I was actually very proud (I had many emotions as you can imagine- and my girlfriend had a talk with the bully and tried to find his mother). The most amazing thing is that after it was all over and the boys were back to re-building their dam, (at our suggestion) Marky walked over and asked the boy if he wanted to help them build it. And he did. The whole event was emotional for me and when we got home I asked Marky to tell his daddy what had happend. He said, "the big boy took the sticks off of our dam and then started hitting me" and Marc said, "what did you do?" All he said was, "I got my sticks back."

That's my little knight. When confronted, a Christian man has to stand his ground. We have to train our boys to stand to protect other people and even themselves from the bullies of this world. They must have a sense of chivalry. And when the battle is over, they must seek to make peace and offer friendship.