This past Sunday, in the K-1 classroom, we discussed the idea of what is fair and what is unfair. One of the things that we found out was that what some consider to be fair might seem unfair to someone else. We talked about Jacob and Esau and the trickery that happened between the two. Jacob wanted what Esau had and tricked their father into giving him Esau’s blessing. In the end, Jacob showed Esau that he loved him by giving him a lot of animals and asking for his forgiveness.

Throughout college, I was always taught to consider what the families that we serve in Early Childhood Education might be going through from day to day. It’s hard to put yourself in other people’s shoes most of the time. Sometimes you may not want to even think about being in someone else’s shoes. In order to become more like Christ, we have to consider others before ourselves. Thinking like this really helps to change the way you perceive others and may give you some insight into why they are acting the way they have been. So much easier said than done.

Thinking about others is hard to do when you can be so focused on what you are doing yourself. I often struggle with this especially when I get upset or hurt. I automatically think about how someone might have wronged me. I feel that God wants us to consider other people (they are his children) rather than always focusing on ourselves.

When a person cuts right in front of you, what is your instinct? If it’s anything like me, I want to call that person all kinds of names and maybe display some signs of road rage. Who knows what happened to that person that day they cut you off… Maybe they had a family member recently pass away or they had an extremely bad day at work. Who knows? I need to do a better job at thinking about what that person has been through instead of always jumping to conclusions.

One thing that I’m going to ponder this week is the following question: How can I pray for others this week? I feel that this will help me to get in the mindset of being in someone else’s shoes. Maybe you could think about others in your life that you can pray for this week.

Leah Tucker
Assistant Children’s Director