So………last night at church it was Wednesday night Bible Study. I now assist downstairs with teaching the kids and wow, kudos to all educators, child care staff and youth leaders. Words can not express my appreciation of you! It’s hard work! But anyway, I was teaching my class “the middlers” about Romans chapter 8. We talked about being more than conquerors and that if GOD be fore us, who can be against us. I decided to tie this into a lesson about bullying with information that I received from www.stopbullying.gov . As my class discussed bullying and how serious of an act it was……..I noticed in the preschool class my little guy was being circled by kids. It was about 4 or 5 preschoolers circled around him and asking about his hand. I saw him pull away and try to walk away. I saw his agitation and hope that they would relinquish. Instinctively (like a mommy does), I stopped talking to my class just long enough to exclaim (loudly and a matter of factly) to my husband and the other teacher, “the very thing that I am teaching against in my class is going on right now in that class! Pay attention!”  (Oh I should ad that I was pointing to my baby and the little circle around him) Ok, Ok, Ok, maybe my reaction wasn’t what it should’ve been, but I didn’t do what I wanted to do, which was  to jump over the table , hop over the class dividing book shelves and break up the little preschool circle myself!  That ladies and gentlemen is what I wanted to do. I would’ve picked my baby up and rescued him from the little ones who were unknowingly (maybe or maybe not) making him uncomfortable.  Apparently the conversation amongst the circle was short lived, because their class went back to coloring, playing, singing, etc. But, later I noticed that my little buddy no longer wanted to stay downstairs in class. I knew the reason why. He was uncomfortable. The kids said some things and he was upset. (Now mind you these are all kids that have seen him before….most of them every week if not twice a week and have all asked the “what happened to him” questions before. I imagine he’s thinking….. “Get over it guys, let’s play”.  He may have even said that to them (he’s done it before). He later told his dad that the reason he didn’t want to go back to the class is because one of the little girls told the others that he has a and I quote “baby hand”.  Now truth be told, these kids may have just been curious. They are preschoolers for goodness sake. But I felt like it was a taunting session, more so than anything else. But, when do I let him handle it? When do I let the teachers handle it? As he gets older how should I deal with these types of situations? First and foremost as a mom, but also as a children’s Bible study teacher on Wednesday nights and as a leader in the church?  The church is supposed to be where he’s safe, where they know him and accept him for who he is and for how God made him. At what age does a curious face asking “what happened to his hand?” become a laughing face saying “look, he has a “baby hand!” ????