“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect"
I used a wardrobe box from Home Depot and wrote the words, "Bully Box" on the front. You could also write different things on the sides if you wanted to help the kids understand that the walls of the box represent the expectations others have of who we are supposed to be. For example, one side could say "TOO..." then lots of words like "smart, silly, pretty, loud, shy." Then on the opposite side you could write "TOO..." again but list all the opposite words. The point is to show that being bullied has nothing to do with the characteristics of the child and more to do with the expectations of the bully and the box they try to put someone in.
I started the children's moment by telling the kids that Jesus wants us to do LOTS of hard stuff but today Jesus asks us to do something that might be the hardest of all! To LOVE our enemies.
Then I ask the kids "what is an enemy?" They always have great answers and eventually someone will use the word "bully."
I tell them that an enemy is a lot like a bully; someone who hurts our hearts with their words or our bodies with their hands. Bullies make us feel unsafe and so we try to protect ourselves. (This is where the Bully Box comes in!). When we are being bullied we want to protect our hearts and bodies from being hurt so we hid the pieces of ourselves that our different and unique trying to keep ourselves safe.
I ask for a volunteer and help them get into a box. I say once we find ourselves in the box we have some choices. We can start to believe everything the bully says about us and when that happens we start to shut the lid. I shut the lid and peek in asking the little one how they feel in the box? Sad? Alone? (PS: Don't pick an introvert. I picked my daughter and she whispered that she was "happy" in the box because she was shy and no one could see her...) Then I tell them, "There are lots of people out here who love you just the way you are. Can you see them?" The little one says no and I open the lid back up.
I say another choice is that once we realize we are in the box, because everyone finds themselves in the box sometimes(!), we can ask the people who love us to help us out. I ask a friend to help me lift the little one in the box up and out. Then I ask all the little ones to look and me, then at each other, then at the congregation and I say, "These are the people who are here to help you out of the Bully Box whenever you find yourself stuck because we love you just the way you are and know that God created us all to be different. Our differences are our gifts to each other and they hold the power to change the world!"
POSTSCRIPT: I think there could easily be a follow up or a part two to the Bully-Box Children's Moments that addresses why it is important to love our enemies. Ask a little one to get into the box but instead of getting them out ask them what do we do when someone is mean to us or when we feel attacked? What if we were all mean back? What if we never felt safe to share who our differences and be who we truly were? Put a few more children in the box so it gets crowded. Then say, "When we are mean to others and hide our differences from one another we pull others into the Bully-Box with us. If everyone did this pretty soon there would be no one to help others out of the box so they can be proud of their differences and all those things that make them unique. Loving Jesus means believing in who we were created to be but ALSO seeing that same beautiful uniqueness in everyone around us even when the walls of their boxes prevent them from seeing it themselves."
