Thought of the Day 12.03.08

This morning, in response to Ethan’s screams of anger, I discovered Spencer messing up a puzzle Ethan was solving. So I reminded Spencer that Jesus wants us to treat others like we want them to treat us and asked him what he thought that would mean. He admitted it would mean being nicer to Ethan, and I returned to cooking breakfast.

A few minutes later Ethan came wandering into the kitchen, cozied up to my legs and told me, “Ethan want be like Jesus.” It was such a touching moment until he added, “Spencer not like Jesus.” Well, Spencer had been overhearing this and began insisting, “Spencer’s more like Jesus,” which made Ethan say, “No. Ethan more like Jesus.”

Although a large part of me was thrilled that they were competing to imitate the Savior, I was distraught that they were turning this goal into a competition, meaning that they were not doing it for the glory of Jesus at all, but for the glory of themselves. And how so thoroughly without glory such forgeries always are.