The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule

We were visiting our family in Mississippi, and it was time for Amelia to go to bed.  Since she is there oldest, she had been given the treat of staying up a little later than the other three.  Amelia asked if I could put her to bed and pray with her, and upon receiving affirmation, we had chatted a few minutes before time for her prayers. 

Together, we closed our eyes and she began to pray, thanking God for her parents, sisters, and brother, for us, her other grandparents, our safe trip and all of those things which grandparents everywhere expect to hear from children and grandchildren at meal times, special times, and bed times. 

Suddenly, though, Amelia began to pray from somewhere off of the normal script, as she began to ask God to help a new girl, Sara, who was coming to their school the following Monday.  She asked Him to help Sara to not be afraid and to feel at home in their school.  She also asked God to help her to remember to be kind and to be a friend to Sara.

After she said amen, I asked Amelia how she thought to pray for Sara.  Her response?  Well, Grammy, the teacher told us today that she would be coming on Monday, and I just thought about how scared I might feel if I had to start a new school.  I would want somebody to pray for me and to be friendly to me, so that’s what I asked Him for her.

Truth, spoken by a child! 

In recent weeks, we have heard much spoken about civility and tolerance.  Recently, I heard a news reporter crediting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the quote:  He who would be first must be willing to be servant to all.  Though I am sure that Dr. King often quoted that Truth, he would never have taken credit for its authorship.  He knew that all Truth that changes people comes from God’s Word and is spiritually motivated, rather than spiritually motivated.  Unlike that reporter, Dr. King knew that quote came from the Greatest Servant of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke it in Matthew 23:11.   

In truth and as always, our lives should not be molded by the ever changing mottos of others and the day but, instead, by the never changing Word of God.  Many people, though not as many as in years past, may quote the Golden Rule, attributing it to Benjamin Franklin or Abraham Lincoln.  Few live the Golden Rule, which, too, is, actually, a quote from the Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 7:12:  Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. 

May God grant me to have the vision of our Master and the heart of a child as I treat others the way I wish to be treated and, as commanded in Galatians 6:2, to carry the burdens of others as if it were my own.  

© 2011 Gerry Sisk

(02/09/11)