Behind the scenes: A blast from the past

I was always told growing up that hurt people, hurt people. And through life I learned that was probably very true. Every person wears a series of masks. They are different at home then they are at work or at school. 

When you see the bully towering over you, you only see the hurt that they are doing to you. But the truth is that everyone has what I call a back story and they hurt people because that's how they get through the pain in their own lives. 

I was working with a group of kids and we were all outside on a beautiful day playing kick ball. All the kids were bickering, yelling, and just being plain mean. I tried and tried to get them to play nice and it just wasn't working when finally one of the boys broke off on their own kicking rocks and hitting the wall. I told the kids to keep playing and I wen on after him. 

I knew this wasn't like him so I knew something was up. I asked him what was wrong and he broke off into a rant about how this kid wasn't playing fair an this kid was doing that and I stopped him. 

"No, there is something else. I've noticed you were really upset before we even started the game." A silent tear rolled down his cheek and It broke my heart, I had hit the mark somewhere. There was something troubling this young boys heart. 

"What's wrong? You know you can talk to me." 

He went off on a story between his sobs of how his mom and dad weren't together any more and his dad had a new girl friend and they always fought. He blamed himself for all of it. 

I looked around and saw the rest of the kids still bickering over a simple kick ball game and it hit me. God was teaching me a very big lesson. These kids were all going through their own very real battles. They weren't hurting each other because that's who they were they were hurting each other because they were very much hurting inside. 

I called them all into a circle on the concrete and we all say down. I slowly went around the circle and made contact with each and every kid. 

"I just realized why you guys might be fighting so much today. Each and everyone of you are going through some tough stuff right now. And each and everyone of you thinks your alone." I asked the kids if I could tell everyone else in the group their stories and I told them that anything said here today was to stay in this circle. 

I stared at the beginning, and pointed things about each of the kids. They all spilled their little hearts out and everyone of them ended up in tears. But I got to tell them that they weren't alone. That just in the people around them they had people going through very similar things. 

It took me back to all the times I was bullied and picked on as a kid and it made it a little easier to take. Because as people are putting me down I realized somewhere in their lives they were hurting too.