When Someone Hurts Your Child

What do you do when someone hurts your child...physically, emotionally, mentally, etc? As a parent, I find this one of the hardest questions to answer. My gut instinct is to hurt that person back...my head tells me to calm down!

Let me back up and relate what happened...

Jordan has had issues with a girl from school. This is the same girl that took her cell phone a few weeks back and started all the lying and covering up issues. That time - it was an emotional hurt. The girl hurt Jordan's feelings and disrespected her. This time she physically hurt her. Jordan had borrowed the girls coat this morning because she was cold. By lunch time, she no longer needed it and she attempted to give it back. The girl threw it back at Jordan's feet and yelled at her to hang onto it - that she didn't want it back right then. Jordan picked up the jacket and went on to her next class. As she was waiting by her class for the teacher to arrive, this girl came up and yanked the jacket from her arms...hard enough to leave abrasions and burn-like marks on her arm from the jacket zipper. Her arm immediately started swelling and Jordan went to the nurse and called me.

What do you do in these situations??? Terrance and I had both warned her about this girl after the first incident. We had told her that this girl might not be a true friend to her...that she might not have Jordan's best interests in mind. But Jordan kept hanging out with her...

I know that sometimes you have to let your kids make their own mistakes...that sometimes getting hurt is the only way to learn...but that is so hard to watch as a parent. Watching her get hurt is excruciating! It's one thing to make the mistake yourself...it's another to sit here and watch her through this. It hurts my heart as her mother to see her in pain...physically and/or emotionally. It hurts to see her not wanting to go to school tomorrow because she will have to face this girl...at school and on the bus. Jordan hates confrontation...she always has. She is the girl that cried on the soccer field when she accidentaly kicked the ball and it hit another girl in the head...super-sensitive, caring, non-confrontational.

I learned this verse last year in bible study and it has become a rock for me. I read it to Jordan and told her to just trust in Him...He is with her wherever she goes...let it be the same rock to her as it has become for me.

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."