Getting Schooled

My 9-year-old struggles. He’s a sweet, bright, funny, interesting, resilient little boy, but he struggles. He doesn’t necessarily intend to be disobedient, but staying on task, following directions, and accomplishing assignments do not come to him naturally. Every day on the way to school, I try to remind him of who he is and what he is capable of. It often sounds like, “You’re going to follow directions today, right? And not distract your classmates? And you’ll finish your assignments on time? You can do this!”

One morning recently, I reminded him of what I have been trying to teach him lately. When we do what we want instead of what we are supposed to and when we distract others, it is selfish.

It’s a hard concept to learn in today’s competitive world. Everyone is trying to succeed and be better than the people around them. This is not, however, the life Christ has called us to! Philippians 2:3 (NIV) very clearly explains, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Nor is it the life Christ was called to: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (vv. 6-8)