In considering our relationships with others, we can make the most out of life by helping others get what they want in life. This principle can be equated with the Golden Rule of the Bible. It is a concept known by many names with many outstanding people bearing testimony of it in their own lives. I want to quote what Mister Rogers said about it.
“All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we’re giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors – in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver. As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have – something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression…..The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have, but what we do with our blessings. Some people have many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and give everything away.”
As a teacher, I have a golden opportunity to give to my students the wisdom of the ages and the vision of the millions of opportunities for success that are available to them. I have the duty to build in them a thirst for truth, a hunger for opportunities for service, and to gift them with the skills to be successful in a future world which none of us knows. I can undertake this enormous task in the same manner a person would eat an elephant…one bite at a time! I must remember each day that little children come to me wanting to learn…wanting to be better today than they were yesterday. That means I must not be detoured by those children who act out, or who disrupt the learning process in the classroom. Believe me, some days, especially right before the weather changes, children can be cantankerous and hard to tolerate. Yet, as a leader, I must put aside my personal emotions, the time ticking away on the class period, or the inevitable failure of the internet to complete our zoom lesson…and I must stop and consider the life of each and every child in my room. And then, again quoting Mister Rogers: I must remember that “The purpose of life is to listen – to yourself, to your neighbor, to your world and to God and, when the time comes, to respond in as helpful a way as you can find…from within and without.”
“There is a destiny that makes us brothers. None goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others, comes back into our own.” - Markham.
- Kay