JUNE72023

Teens who are cyberbullied attempt suicide at three times the rate of other teens. The negative messages that they receive make them doubt themselves and their worth. This is, of course, nothing new — well, the cyber part is new but not the bullying. In the Book of Tobit the protagonist prays: It is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard insulting calumnies. A young woman going through something similar considers suicide. “It is far better for me not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to have me die, so that I need no longer live to hear such insults.” Ruyard Kipling wrote a poem talking about the experience of bullying: If you can keep your head when all about you/   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,/   If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,/ But make allowance for their doubting too… The cure for bullying is understanding one’s true identity as a child of God. No matter what anyone says about you, you are precious in God’s eyes and have an eternal destiny. Others’ opinions cannot change the fact that you are beloved of God.