A Child's Heart

I fidgeted in the car waiting for my daughter to get out of school. I was lucky that my employer let me leave work long enough to pick my daughter up and give her a ride to her after school child care, but I needed to be back in the office in ten minutes.

Yet another car pulled around mine. The driver offered me an angry glance. She didn't need to remind me that there were "protocols" and I was holding up the line. My daughter was usually one of the first children out of the building. She knew that I needed to get back to work quickly. I felt my impatience began to mount as the minutes ticked by.

Finally, she appeared and I began my lecture. Satisfied that she understood the point I was trying to make, I eventually asked her why she was late. She explained that she would have been out earlier but had seen one of the other children in her class crying. He was upset because his mom had not been outside waiting to pick him up. She reminded me bluntly, as only a child can, that she knew exactly how he felt. I had once become so involved in a meeting at work that I had completely forgotten to pick her up. As she remembered the fear and hurt she had felt, she felt compassion for her friend and remained with him while he walked back to the office.

I realized that sometimes our children learn the lessons of love and compassion in spite of our failures.

Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14