I had a wonderful and rewarding experience this week. I had been to Wal-Mart and as I left the store I reached inside my jeans pocket for my cell phone and unknowingly pulled out some of my money. A lady behind me called out, telling me that my money was blowing away. I turned and saw her standing with her young daughter while her son chased down the dollar bills. I gave chase too. It was dark and we ran after the money under the Wal-Mart lights. The wind blew the bills back toward the building as we raced to track them down. The boy looked to be about seven or eight years old. I laughed as I ran down the final bill with the wind kicking it away one more time. I grabbed it up. The boy gave me the money he had collected and I handed him the one dollar I had chased down, and thanked him and his mom. Then we went our separate ways.
I thought of what a remarkable response I had witnessed. Another family might have kept quiet and quickly rounded up the money and kept it for themselves. Yet this woman in an instant called out to me and her young son helped me recover it all. What a wonderful example of doing the right thing: treating others as you would want to be treated. The woman taught her son well. He learned more from his mom about doing what was right than from any lesson a teacher, priest or preacher might have taught. It’s the parents or a significant person in a young child’s life who lays the foundation. Without a foundation, the teacher, coach or counselor are building on sifting sand that will be blown away when trouble or temptation comes.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
Please notice that it says train not teach. Teaching and preaching ethics without training will accomplish nothing.
