BULLYING |
| Prayers and other worship material |
| Opening Words |
Bullies' words sting and slice through me. Bulllies' words twist into shapes that beat me and leave me like a trampled leaf. I run to hide but there is no safe corner. I only need a small place to lick my wounds. |
| There are always times when we feel unlovely and
unloved, bewildered, lost, unsure of who we are and of what is expected
of us. There always seem to be dark times of pain and confusion, of misunderstandings that become like tangled roots - twisted - without space to grow deeply. There are always times when we feel trashed and rejected, Sometimes by those close to us. |
| And so we pack our pain away deep down, as deep as the twisted roots, and tightly, very tightly, afraid it might be glimpsed, unpacked by cruel tongues. |
| Help us to disentangle the knots of confusion and
misunderstanding, To understand the hurts that others feel - that we have ignored. Help us to speak of what we feel, Help us to know when others need to speak so that then we can l listen. Help us to loosen the tight package of pain and move into new understandings. Let us share, and search and listen, Know ourselves more completely And feel an awakened sense of all that is good and true spilling over into riches of brightness and love. |
| Dear Lord, we know that you have given us the
freedom to choose. We can choose whether to treat others with kindness and respect or to scorn, bully and abuse them. Help us to choose rightly. Help us to recognise the divine image in each one of us, however different we may be as individuals. Help us to resist the pressures of others who want us to join them in making someone a victim of their cruelty. Help us to know that in hurting others we are harming our better selves and hurting you. Amen |
| God the father and mother of us all, beyond our
highest thoughts and deepest knowledge, who has given us the gift of language that we may communicate with one another and talk of every aspect of your created world, direct our minds and our lips that in all our dealings with others our words may be fair, so that we cause no hurt, and let our actions reflect the kindness of our words. Amen |
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