The Heart and Compassion of a Child

I wrote this a few months back when my wife had to leave town for a couple of days and I kept the boys by myself. They taught me a great lesson.


Yesterday was an interesting day at the office. First, I am by myself with the boys this week, as my wife needed to go to East Texas to get the house ready for her dad. While in Iraq he had a stroke, and has been in a hospital in Germany for the past week. Well, he returned home Monday evening and Cody went to go help her mom tend to him for a couple of days. She should be back today or tomorrow. My father in law is expected to make a full recovery and right now his plans are to return to Iraq in about 3 weeks. He is doing well but please pray for him.

In any event, I mention this because the boys are with me this week. It makes for an interesting day at the office as they are running and playing all throughout the church building while I study in my office. The biggest challenge is keeping them out of the baptistry.

Well yesterday, a young woman, twenty three years of age, came by the church building and wanted some counseling. I invited her in and we sat in the auditorium and talked for a considerable amount of time. This young woman's world is absolutely falling apart. She is sick and because of her sickness, her fiance left her. Her parents are divorcing, which cannot be easy for any twenty-three year old, much less for one who is experiencing a separation of her own. Her sister is strung out on drugs. And she has no money and insisted on me not giving her any. In addition to all of this, she does not like her job and wants to move to Austin to get a better job but her father absolutely forbids it, even though she is an adult. A lot of this, of course, has to do with her culture. So as I sat and listened to her, she was sobbing quite heavily.

I have experienced moments like this, but this time was a bit different. My kids were running around the auditorium and foyer, playing and laughing while all of this was happening. I tried to get them to go elsewhere and play but it was to no avail. Finally, my youngest, a 3-year old, came up to her and gave her a hug and patted her on the back and asked if she will be okay. He had never even seen this woman before. He had no idea who she was and he did not particularly care. As I sat there in awe, she burst out with laughter and told me that I will never know what that meant to her. I'm sure Chase will not either, but it sure made his daddy proud. He helped this young lady in a way that I could not.

After she left, I went to ask the boys if they were ready to go get some lunch and Aaron, my oldest, a 5-year old, was teary-eyed himself. I asked him what was wrong and he said he was sad because that girl was sad. Again, I was awe-struck. I have two precious boys that have tremenous hearts of compassion. May I do my best to instill in them the drive to keep it.

But while the temptation exists for me to point out my children as unique in that regard, I really don't think they are. They are indeed special, and I couldn't be more proud of them. But I believe for the most part, all children have hearts of gold and the type of compassion for which all of us should strive.

In Matthew 18:3-5, our Lord stated, "I assure you, unless, you are converted and become like chldren, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child--this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me."

I am grateful for children in this world. They truly are a blessing. And I am especially thankful that God has given me two of them to raise, witness, and learn from each and every day.