Sensitivity
“…so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” – Romans 12:5
The final phrase on our “I Will” Board was “I will put myself in other people’s shoes.” We try and clean out toys periodically to give away. I talk to my kids about how some kids don’t have toys, food or even moms and dads. We have a lot of friends who have adopted or are in the process, so it’s a great way to talk about how God wants us to take care of the orphan and widow. He also speaks of the poor, so I want my kids to learn to have sensitivity to others in these categories. I wanted to think about what would be meaningful for them to learn to walk in someone else’s shoes. I thought that it might make a good impact, at their age, to spend part of the day without toys or television. My husband expanded it, when he got home, to no t.v. So, the second half of the day, we did no toys and no t.v. I was talking to a friend about this idea yesterday, and she brought up the fact that just saying, “There are kids without…” seems fairly helpless – especially for kids who don’t have the means to do much to help. She reminded me that we aren’t helpless because we can always pray. So, we used some of the time to look up appropriate pictures of kids in need and began to pray for them. We did this by going to World Vision and clicking on “find a child.” We decided to pick out one of the children we were praying for and sponsor her. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while with the girls involved. This was a great opportunity to finally do it. The no toys thing started out rough. After praying for the kids, which went well, I told them about the no toys and no t.v. My oldest threw a fit. I didn’t see it coming, and it was very sad to see…interesting to think about. I’m still processing it. We talked and tried to get to her heart. I also was trying to make it fun – suggesting hide and seek, teaching “See, See oh Playmate,” singing songs, making up stories, doing other non-toy activities. Some of these were eventually embraced. She really enjoyed when dad got home, and we were able to look at our pictures from different mission trips we’d been on to Africa or Mexico. She was able to see those pictures with us in the mix, and that was probably more impactful than anything. Showing the conditions people live in and kids going to school without shoes or torn clothes meant something to her. I guess it’s the first step to reaching her on this subject. It was a good little lesson here.
