Kindergarten Please!

A good friend and I were chatting earlier in the week. And, as it seems to be the case lately, the topic turned to the current state of affairs with regard to social injustice and racial unrest. After she and I collectively solved all the woes of our country, based on our personal experiences and untested strategies, we concluded that people should remember how it used to be on the playground during recess in kindergarten.

NOTE: NO NEED FOR YOU TO READ ANY FURTHER IF KINDERGARTEN FOR YOU WAS NOT THE CLOSEST THING TO UTOPIA THAT YOU HAD EXPERIENCED AT THAT AGE!!

So many lessons were taught that seemed rather basic then but continued to carry over into adulthood, like: 

• Play fair

• Say you’re sorry when you’ve hurt your friend

• And my favorite: hold hands and stick together.

I know we weren’t all fortunate enough to say that as we looked around our class, we saw a melting pot of races, cultures, and ethnicities; but for those of us that did and who had amazing teachers and school policies; we were all the same!

Yea, some of us may have been a little faster, goofier, and clumsier, but that’s what made it fun! And as we graduated from fun, it was all about obtaining the approval of our parents, our teachers, and then as we got older; our peers.

We all generally start off with our parents teaching us in the home and then our teachers teaching us in the classroom. But it doesn’t stop there. I’m so grateful to serve a God that was not only a part of the teaching at school and at home, but at ballet and track practice, at my friend’s house, at work, and even those places that my parents still don’t know I went—He was there!

Psalm 143:10 (MSG Translation) is clear...

“Teach me how to live to please you, because you’re my God.”

So, when it’s all said and done, some of the basics that we learned back then still remain true and can be applied today. The difference for us should be who are we attempting to please with our actions, behavior, and decisions. I know who I’m choosing...