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I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
-John 13:34-35
Saturdays are slow, when we can take one away from the busyness of our typical weekends. That’s usually my day to get the boys up and going. Last Saturday, I hollered up for the teenager to join the land of the living after a late night for marching band at the football game. Sleepily, he wandered downstairs to his favorite person in the house... the fluffy cat next to me. He leaned over the back of the couch and rested his hand on her head and his face on her body, burying his face in her long white fur. His toddler brother came racing over, stood on his tiptoes, and did exactly the same from the opposite side. The cat seemed to enjoy the warmth and didn’t stir. Our toddler would giggle and grin, stand straight up to look at his brother, and then copy it once more, gently resting his face on the cat’s side.
It’s been said that kids do what we do, not what we say. I think we sometimes let ourselves off the hook when we don’t have our own kids or they’re grown. But there’s almost always some child watching us and seeking to learn by imitating, experimenting, especially when it comes to how we interact with others, with animals, with those smaller, weaker, or in need of care and compassion. The way we model love and compassion, tenderness and gentleness, far more so than what rules or expectations we communicate in speech, is what children, or new believers, will emulate.
Adults are fond of joking about how children and teenagers have selective hearing or tune out what we try to tell them, but far less often do we talk about how much they copy our actions. This week, be mindful of the things you do as others may observe you and see if it communicates the same lessons your words do. What we do, and how we treat others is always a teaching moment, even, or especially, when we don’t mean for it to be. And if you have time, stoop low, cuddle someone fluffy, and delight in God’s creatures, great and small.
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