What Does Your Heart Desire?

Posted Monday, February 16, 2009, at 2:43 PM

Have you ever watched a group of children when one of them happened to take a tumble? Did you notice how the other children reacted? I have been in such a situation many times and wondered why other children would laugh when someone fell down. Sometimes there would be a caring person in the group, usually an adult, who would go to the child to see if he/she were hurt. It seems strange that people would laugh at potential harm. This is especially strange considering the fact that most children fall down at some time or another and probably experience the same embarrassment and hurt. Why, then, are children not more concerned about the welfare of others instead of laughing?

"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth," we read in the 6th verse of the 13th chapter I Corinthians. In the 5th verse of the same chapter, we read, "It is not rude..." One test as to whether we have love in our hearts is whether we enjoy seeing others have trouble. If we really love others, we will desire the best for them. Many children have not yet learned the true meaning of love or even that we are supposed to love others. Children often respond according to natural inclinations rather than learned behaviors.

Adults who have not yet learned to love as they should will be heard to say things like, "Aha, he finally got what was coming to him!" or "He deserved that! I'm glad to see that it happened!" Both comments and other similar comments indicate a heart with the desire for hurt.

On the other hand, people who are sad when someone "gets what is coming to them" are people whose heart desires good. They feel sorry for people who suffer even if they did seem to cause their own trouble. A heart of love wishes that the bad things were not done in the first place and want no one to have to suffer.

Is it funny to see someone stumbling around drunk? Is it funny when a family breaks up because of adultery? We might hear someone laugh and say, "I knew that marriage wouldn't last!" Should we laugh and make fun when others believe and worship differently from us? Real love finds no humor in these situations. Rather, a person who loves others would be sad to hear or see someone do something wrong and would respect the beliefs of others.

Children should be reprimanded for laughing when someone gets hurt. Adults need to set a good example before children of compassion for those who are having troubles.

Love is so very different from the picture painted by society. Society would have us believe that love is finding someone who pleases us. Love is really a matter of putting others before ourselves and trying to please them. This is the meaning of love that should be taught to children.

Train Up a Child

By Pat Lamb

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"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6 Pat will have comments and suggestions about raising children based on her training and many years of teaching. Pat first began teaching Sunday School while in 7th grade at Verona, Missouri, where she was born and raised. After high school graduation there, she attended Missouri University and graduated with honors with a degree in Vocational Home Economics. She later completed training and received certification for elementary teaching in New Mexico. She has taught Home Economics (including child care), kindergarten, second grade, and substitute taught at several schools at all grade levels. She was awarded the Missouri Distinguished Adult Basic Education Service Award for distinguished leadership and dedication in all aspects of Adult Basic Education in the community, region, and state. This award was given to one GED teacher in the state. She was also invited to be included in "Who's Who of American Educators" in 2007. She was listed in Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who Among American Business Women. Pat has recently written a book titled, "Let the Children Come" which will be released in the spring. In addition to classroom teaching, Pat has taught in churches and Sunday Schools through the years. She served as Acting Children's Director at First Baptist Church in Albuquerque, NM. She also directed an Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity preschool on the Navajo reservation. She currently teaches GED at Gibson Vocational Technical School in Reeds Spring and taught GED classes for 15 years at Blue Eye and Shell Knob. Pat and her husband, Keith, who presently serves on the Reeds Spring School Board, have four grown children and three grandchildren. They are approaching their 50th wedding anniversary. "Our children and grandchildren have taught us a great deal and are still teaching us," Pat says. "I look forward to sharing some of this information with readers. I don't claim to have all the answers, but perhaps my comments can be of some help. It is not easy to raise children in today's world where they are constantly being bombarded with temptations and varying ideas of what is right and wrong."

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