Last Sunday in our Jumpstart classroom (K-5) the lesson was about being a servant. As part of the lesson, the teachers had each child wash another’s feet. They talked about how Jesus did this with his disciples in John 13.
That afternoon I got a call from the mom of one of our first graders. She was calling to thank the teachers for the lesson. She said it must have hit home because her first grader was washing everyone in the family’s feet in the bathtub!
This comes as no surprise to me from this particular child. She is the product of servant-hearted parents. She can’t help but learn how to be a servant on a daily basis because her parents would bend over backward for just about anyone. I’ve seen it time and again. They are eager to serve and Christ shines through them.
The memory verse the kids are working on is Philippians 2:5-7 :
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.(NIV)
And as I thought about all this, I wondered what my own children see on a daily basis. Are they learning humility or seeing my huffy response to the lady who cut in line at the store? Are they watching me patiently serve their dinner, clean up their spills, play that game or read that book for the umpteenth time? Most days, admittedly the answer is no. And yet Christ left His Father’s side to come save a bratty, whiny kid like me.
“And may the prayer of my heart always be, make me a servant today.”