Getting to the Basics – Treating Others With Respect

It’s been over 30 years since Robert Fulghum wrote his collection of essays entitled All I Ever Needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten. It was simplistic view of life that covered the golden rule and more.  Here is the list …

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

What would the world look like if we lived up to this list?

Let me bring it down to three … 

What does the Lord require of you – do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.

Basically, treat people fair, go the second mile, and remember we are people who need His grace.

Now those are lessons to live by.

till tomorrow – todd