Watching children hurt is the worst. It can be a struggle to know what to do, and how far to go to protect them. Sometimes, it’s even hard to know whether they’re truly being bullied or whether they’re just experiencing the regular hard knocks of growing up around sinful people (themselves included). When our son experienced bullying at school I struggled to know if I should call the parents, talk to the principal, or just coach him at home and allow him to learn to handle hard situations on his own.* But there was one thing I knew without a doubt I could do…one thing that had the power to change everything.
Pray.
Many mornings, after dropping him off at school, I would come home and lay on his bed begging the Lord to be kind, to protect him, and give him mercy. During that season, I spent a lot of time in God’s Word looking for things to pray that would give him peace…and honestly, give me peace. Below are a few of my favorites.
3 Verses to Pray When Your Child is Being Bullied
Daniel 6:21-22
“Then Daniel said to the king, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.'”
One of the things we try hard NOT to do at Million Praying Moms is take scripture out of context. It’s important as you’re praying to read what’s happening around that verse in its fuller context so you can get an accurate meaning. That said, I don’t think it’s stretching things too far to ask God to shut the mouths of the lions as we send them into the den each day. The story of Daniel in the Old Testament is a perfect demonstration of what the Lord can do to bring Himself glory. We made it our practice to pray this as we drove our son to school each morning. During one particular incident, we felt lead to pray this verse and found out at the end of the day that the bully’s parents had taken their phone away for a month because of the way they had treated our son! Literally, God shut the “mouth” of the lion and kept this bully from using social media to make things worse!
We spent time in 2019 praying through the book of Daniel together, which is what inspired this particular prayer. If you’d like to do the same for your child, download a digital copy of the Daniel Edition of Pray the Word Journal.
Lamentations 3:31-32
“For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love…”
This verse served as a reminder to me that I can always count on the Lord to show compassion to my children. Why? Because it’s His nature to do so. The reason He shows compassion is because He is a God Who overflows with steadfast (unchanging) love. Knowing that God’s love for my children is not dependent on their behavior, but His character, that it is in His very nature to show His children compassion, and that the well of His love for them never runs dry was (is) a constant source of comfort. “Lord, have compassion on him…” is one of my current go-to quick prayers. I love it because even though I can say it quickly, in passing, I know it’s packed with good theology and that’s it’s worth putting my faith in God’s Word.
Psalm 18:16-19
“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”
Since my children first made public professions of faith, it has been my practice to ask God to hold on to them. Actually, my choice of words is usually, “Lord, keep them.” If we don’t understand the Gospel, it’s easy to think it’s our job to hold on to God. And to some measure, I guess it is. It isn’t wrong to pray the other way around…that our kids will hold on to Jesus as they encounter trials of many kinds. But I’ve come to understand that my arms, in comparison with God’s, are very weak. When things get super hard, I might not be able to hold on.
But God never lets His children go.
Even if your children haven’t yet placed their hope and trust in Christ, you can still ask God to hold them. Part of my motivation for this prayer is that I want them anchored, cemented, tethered to God’s truth. The world wants to get to them and tell things about themselves that aren’t true. The enemy wants to mess with them, lie to them, and deceive them into thinking they have no worth, no value, and no purpose in God’s Kingdom. God says otherwise, so I ask Him to hold on to my children and make it so they believe His voice of truth no matter what other voices they hear.
I hope these three verses, my personal favorites, serve you well if your child is enduring a season of bullying. If you have others you’d like to share to encourage the entire Million Praying Moms community, please list them in the comments! Feel free to share your story behind them and how they’ve brought comfort to your family!
Additional Resources
How to Deal with Bullying: An Interview with Counselor, David Thomas
