Martyrdom or Vengeance? Part 2

Granted, I'm probably an idiot for undertaking such a controversial subject during my first week of blogging, but I haven't received any hate mail yet, so I guess it's alright!

At the conclusion of the last article, we were contemplating how to teach children to resolve conflicts; after I recounted my "bully on a bike" encounter when I was twelve.

But let's backtrack a year... at the age of eleven my favorite book was "The Martyr's Mirror" which is a huge volume (1,158 pages) of true stories remembering those who have given their lives for Christ. Childishly, I longed to be one of them... to seal my faith with my blood and testify for the Lord with my dying breath. In my daydreams, I lived in 16th Century Europe and got to meet Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel, Menno Simons, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Knox, and many, many others.

So, it is no wonder that when a bully comes riding up on his bicycle, I took it as an opportunity to show my "martyr qualities". But it wasn't my faith that was under attack; it was a group of schoolchildren, all of whom were younger than I.

I will never apologize for jumping in front of a bully's bike to rescue a first-grader. It would have been cowardly to stand by and do nothing. Nor do I regret destroying his "lance" and sending him packing. But I lost my temper and uttered things I should not have said. Looking back on the situation, I realize that my "martyr complex" actually kept me from handling the situation correctly from the beginning, so by the time I took action, it was in anger; not righteous indignation, but fleshly fury.

So, I swung the pendulum from one extreme to the other: first martyrdom, then vengeance. This is actually quite common, especially as wives supposedly "submitting" to our husbands. How many times have we kept silent, deluding ourselves with a "meek and quiet spirit" only to lose our temper and lash out at a quite unexpected moment?

Tune in next time as I attempt to reach a balance, and discuss a way to teach little ones (and ourselves) the biblical pattern for resolving conflicts without martyrdom or vengeance...


Click the link below to check out this incredible book, available through Amazon.com:

Martyrs Mirror: The Story of Seventeen Centuries of Christian Martyrdom From the Time of Christ to A.D. 1660