Mean Girls

I am very fortunate to be in a small group study of the Book of Esther this summer. It is a Beth Moore study and only the second Beth Moore I have done. I absolutely love that woman. She is funny and smart and certainly knows her Bible. She is also an admitted sinner and that makes her likable and easy to relate to.

Our recent study had us talking about mean girls. Now you would think at the age of 52, mean girls would be a thing of the past. But no,.... mean girls come in all ages. Some of them are harder to identify than others, but at some point their true intentions are revealed. I have tried my very hardest to not dignify a mean person, by getting mean myself, but there are times when it is hard to keep my inner mean girl from poking her head out!

One thing Beth Moore said in the lesson was "coming in contact with a mean girl, brings out your mean girl". She went on to say how that is even more true when the mean girl is hurting your own daughter. It made me chuckle to think of times I and my sisters have turned into a mama grizzly protecting her young. I have certainly been known to bristle when my children are the target of a mean person, but who hasn't?

Recently Amber had a situation with her babysitter. There was a contract dispute and the sitter felt like Amber owed her more money than Amber understood the contract to have stated. The sitter threatened to sue and sent a couple of snippy emails asking for the money. Amber decided she would not respond in hopes it would all go away. While I was there, however, she received an email from the sitter stating she had decided to forgive "the debt" after attending a "religious meeting" the night before. Great we thought. But the letter went on to defame and criticize Amber and her upbringing and basically state in so many words that the sitter was the better person in the whole affair.

Wow, I am not sure this girl understood the message from her "religious meeting". More than that, however, the mean girl alerts were going off like fireworks in my head! How could anyone think my daughter was not just wonderful in all respects? Snide, biting retorts were coming to me right and left. I would have loved to kick the feet out from under that girl...how dare she say those things. But I didn't....we didn't. Amber and I talked long and hard about what we could say, but why we wouldn't say those things. I guess you could say we took the high road and at the time it was hard.

I hope Amber realizes now (weeks later)that our lack of response talks more about her upbringing and her heart than anything we could have written in response. It was a lesson for both of us. Beth Moore writes that "it is tough being a woman in a mean world". I pray that more and more of us will see how the things of this world taint our viewpoint and hide the truths of what is actually important (such as family, loving your neighbor and forgiveness). I can hopefully keep my inner mean girl under wraps from now on, but don't hold me to it.....