So, I was just reading an article about disciplining children and how to show discipline and positive reinforcement at a young age. I found something that pointed to Jesus that I wanted to share.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A 2006 study backs up this idea: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology discovered that toddlers as young as 18 months already have full-fledged qualities of altruism and cooperation.
The way they demonstrated this was simple. A researcher would "struggle" to hang up a towel with a clothespin or stack up a pile of books. When he dropped the clothespin or tipped the books over, the toddlers would race to pick up the clothespin and hand it back, or restack the books. But when the researcher made the same mistakes without struggling — that is, without looking like he needed help — the toddlers didn't budge. They understood what it meant to be helpful.
Get your child involved in daily tasks around the house so she learns that everybody works together. "I recommend that parents find things their children can do, whether it's washing vegetables, feeding the dog, or sorting laundry," Kvols says. "You're teaching your child to be helpful, which is one of the most important life skills. We've found time and again that the people who are most mentally healthy are those who've learned to be of service to others."
In John, chapter 13, just as Jesus is preparing to be betrayed by Judas and die for us in the most shameful, gruesome way… He washes the feet of the disciples. The thing that surprises me most, is not His servanthood nearing the hour of his sacrifice, but what He tells the disciples.
13“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
14“If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
(Emphasis mine)
I almost expect Him to say that they should actually be washing His feet because He is the Lord and the Teacher, but He doesn’t. He wants them to learn to serve each other. And remember, these disciples, are teenagers… maybe in their early twenties, not old men as we picture them.
And then he gives them a new commandment:
34“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Not just that you love one another, but also how. He says to love like He loves. We should then look like our Rabi and have dust on us because we follow Him so closely.
