Friends don't bite Friends

Last week I had the privilege of watching our Children's Musical, Christmas Hang Ups. The kids all did a great job. Our soloists have incredible voices and the kids all held their parts throughout. I especially thought Tex stole the show, but they were all awesome. Thanks to Colene for her leadership, all the volunteers who built the set, provided crowd control, helped with choreography, served cookies, and the myriad of other responsibilities that were undertaken to make this an awesome couple of nights.

The premise of the show was that the "Christmassy" ornaments were treating the "souvenir" ornaments like second class citizens. In the end, Joseph (as in Joseph and Mary) rescues Christmas by making it clear that the child in that Nativity scene on the mantel came to unite everyone, not to tear them apart. It was a good story that reinforces for the children that lesson that we hope they're getting, that all people are children of God and Christ is savior for each and every one. No elitism, no bigotry, no separation for any reason. Well done.

This all reminded me of something that has become a catch phrase for staff. It's really intended to be a joke and we've had a lot of fun with it. Let me give you the background. Marsha and I have offices with windows that are above the downstairs playground. This is where the youngest of our children in Sunday School, PDO, and child care play. There are times when we hear the joyous children playing and having fun. There are other times when we hear the sound of children crying, for whatever reason children cry. (Let's face it, sometimes they just cry. Other times they cry to help other children cry.) So this is the music of ministry that is our serenade.

Each fall, when PDO is coming back for the school year, the youngest of the children need to learn the rules of engagement. Normally, the teachers are sharing those rules in a calm manner. However there was a moment where a teacher on the playground got caught up in the moment. In the midst of a conflict between two children she raised her voice to make her point. The lesson she taught in that moment? "FRIENDS DON'T BITE FRIENDS!"

Friends don't bite friends. Robert Fulghum once wrote a book titled "Everything I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten." Perhaps it starts earlier. Perhaps everything you need to know starts in pre-school. "Friends don't bite friends" is a lesson for all ages. (The joke at staff meetings is that we're all getting t-shirts with that as our theme.)