Sunday Sermon
Good morning! Please indulge me a few minutes of your Sunday so that I might shed light on a topic that our society has forgotten. The topic is compassion. It seems as though we have become so focused on bettering ourselves and speeding down life’s highway toward success and wealth, that we have left compassion sitting on the side of the road, choking on our capitalistic exhaust fumes and self indulgent dust. Sure, there are the occasional philanthropic pit stops and Goodwill donations. However, the everyday practice of compassion seems to be an art long forgotten. I see the lack of it in many school aged kids, as I help out in classrooms and observe playground behavior. I cannot help but attribute this to the parenting that these children receive.
Regardless of religion, economic status and race, compassion is something that every parent can instill in their children. With all of the resources available, there is really no excuse for the lack of lessons in compassion. There are proactive opportunities like Habitat For Humanity, where families can take part in building homes for those in need. There are websites like “Compassionate Kids,” that teach about the three areas of compassion and give suggestions for implementing the lessons taught. One of my favorite books, The Book Of Virtues For Young People, tells stories of compassion that children can relate to and find interesting. Making compassion the topic of dinner discussion can be a great way to start a lesson with your own family. Tell a story from your childhood that illustrates compassion shown to you or an act that you performed. Then ask your kids for ideas on how to show compassion to others.
Before I step down off of my soap box, I would like to offer an incentive to those families who are willing to perform some acts of compassion, as inspired by this post. Decide, as a family, which acts you would all like to perform. Tell me about them in the comments section and I will randomly select one winner to receive a copy of the book that I mentioned above. Remember, you are on your honor to actually do this activity! Furthermore, I would like you all to share this post with your friends and family, by way of email, links and any other way that you share ideas. Let’s make the virtue of compassion a wide spread idea. The more people we get involved, the better off our world will be!
This concludes my sermon. I’ll pass the collection plate for comments. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Kadi-
we have the book, so I am not entering to win it. Let me tell you about some awesome kids I know.
One raised over 150 dollars for missionaries by baking bread and selling it at church.
One took all of his money and bought turkeys for the foodbank at the holidays…and this kid also gives numerous shoe boxes filled with gifts to a particular ministry every year
One kid was too small to do too much so she chose some of her favorite clothes to give to the homeless,
One kid donated her time to a new mom twice a week so the new mom could get some rest. This kid cooked and cleaned and babysat..for 6 hours twice a week…for free.
One kid is saving to buy a family at church a stove because they don’t have one
One kid helps his mom pass out sack lunches that they keep fresh in their van to give to homeless people when they see them
One kid regularly picks up new toy to be taken to the police station for kids in critical transition situation..he pays for it by doing chores
one kid doesn’t do much in many people’s eyes but I have watched him stand between a bully and the proposed victim..
all of these kids can be seen praying for others, helping neighbors after a flood when their own work at home is done and they have free time..and many other things. All of the kids are frm the same family..and out of the 8 of them they are all compassionate, kind, and intensely concerned about others/ethical issues/environment/etc.
Sometimes they make mistakes. They are not nerdy or goody two shoes at all. They watch their dad and walk as he walks and in doing so their behavior is natural and easy for them..because the look up to this incredible man with admiration..He is their hero in a time when maybe not so many dads play hero very well.
I thought you might like to know that kids like that are out there
My kids are only 2 and 4, so it is hard to do some of these things with them, but we are working on teaching compassion. Here are some things that we are doing or have done:
1) Praying for the youth, that they will live for Him.
2) Filling shoeboxes each Christmas for Samaritan’s Purse. I tell my children that these shoeboxes are going to children that probably have never received a toy. My daughter is very concerned about them.
3) Showing them pictures from Compassion International so that we can chose a child to sponsor.
4) My husband took a missions trip to Haiti and we told her how poor the people are there. She wants to pray for the people. She asks about them sometimes and we have shown her pictures of how they live.
5) When we see a car accident or ambulance, we stop to pray for the people involved.
Great post!
Stumbled!
Very good post! In my community, they have an organization that does Family Volunteer Day that allows all family members, the youngest included, to participate. I like this b/c they provide tasks that 1, 2, and 3 year olds can do. The kids really feel wonderful about themselves afterwards.
Kadi,
My eight year old daughter decided that for her birthday party she would ask everyone to bring canned food instead of birthday gifts to take to the local sharing house. This caught on and several other kids in our community did the same at their birthday parties.
Growing up my mother raised my brother and I pretty much by herself. We often had to go to food banks or be on food stamps, borrow money or sell things at the pawn shop. But, every time there was a charity food drive at school my mom always sent us with 2 grocery bags full. She always said that people were helping us so we needed to help other people too.
Now that I am grown I give to as many organizations as I can. I often give money to the random charities outside of stores, I buy toys for children in need, and to help with adults, I am a CPR instructor for the red cross as a volunteer. I always wanted to help growing up and now I can.
My husband and I also donate our children’s old clothes (and some toys) to good will or the local pregnancy center for others to use. I always tell my children about this and tell them that I do what I do because people need help sometimes and if no one helps them then it will only get worse and we don’t want that. She doesn’t like the sound of things being bad for other’s of course so she gets quite concerned. I’m hoping in the next year or so to look into a charity she can do on her own (she’s 4 right now) because I’m sure she’ll want to help.
Thank you for the inspiring blog.