Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child:

The winner was a four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said,

“Nothing, I just helped him cry.”

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Teacher Debbie Moon’s first graders were discussing a picture of a family.

One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he was adopted.

A little girl said, “I know all about adoption, I was adopted.”

“What does it mean to be adopted?”, asked another child.

“It means”, said the girl, “that you grew in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy!”

That is seeing everything from the standpoint of Love.

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Whenever I’m disappointed with my spot in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott.

Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play. His mother told me that he’d set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen.

On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school.

Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement. “Guess what, Mom,” he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me…

“I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer.”

There is virtue in cheerfully accepting one’s situation and always staying positive.

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An eye witness account from New York City, on a cold day in December, some years ago:

A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.

A lady approached the young boy and said, “My, but you’re in such deep thought staring in that window!”

“I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boy’s reply.

The lady took him by the hand, went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.

She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet and dried them with the towel.

By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him.

She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.”

As she turned to go, the astonished little boy caught her by the hand and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her:

“Are you God’s wife?”

Teaching:

Lord Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of God.” (Gospel of Mathew, chap. 18, v 3)

To be like children is to be innocence personified. To be like children means to be ego-less. Kingdom of God is an ego-less realm. One can enter the kingdom of God only after the death of the ego. Death of the body is not the passport and visa for the kingdom of God! One has to kill the ego very much while living in this world. It is not a posthumous attainment.