un-Christlike behavior

Tonight I am quite upset so it's probably not the best time to blog. I apologize in advance if my thoughts are disjointed or ill-thought-out.

I just returned from a combined YM/YW activity of which I was in charge. We were playing games and all seemed to be going well and everyone having fun until the last game. I had thought it sounded like an innocent, if very silly, game. Everyone was on the gym floor on their hands and knees. They all had stockinged feet. The object was to pull off other's socks while managing to keep on your own. As soon as both of your socks were pulled off, you were out of the game.

There is one boy who is not well liked. He is not "cool". Most of the boys won't even give him the time of day. When it came to the sock game, the other boys ganged up on him and several held him down while the others stripped him of his socks. He was pretty upset and left.

It makes me mad and sad! Bullying was absolutely NOT part of the planned activity. Church should be one place where you not only are safe but where you feel accepted and cared about. My heart aches for this boy.

At the same time, I feel badly for the boys doing the bullying because I believe that they do it because they are insecure. Knowing them, I do not believe they feel good about themselves. I don't think they can learn to truly be kind to others and reach out to include them until they have good self-esteem. So, what can I do and what can their other leaders do to help build their self-esteem? I don't deal with the YM very much so I don't have many opportunities to help them feel better about themselves. It feels a bit like a situation of little hope.

The only thing of any value that came out of this experience is that I went home and used it as an excellent teaching opportunity for my own children. McKayla was at the activity and saw it and Shanley and Chandler were a captive, interested audience. We had a nice, long talk about how we treat others. I feel that my children are well-liked and I emphasized that comes with a responsibility to reach out to others and include them and be kind at all times.

For now I will try to get to sleep by trying to focus on the fact that at least I don't have to be in charge (and thus feel responsible) of the combined YM/YW activity again for several months.