My Brothers Keeper

One of the fundamental qualities of living a Christ-like life is loving our neighbors.  I've always known this innately and was taught this growing up (it is the golden rule after all), but not since we became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have I known it cognitively.  As we have raised our children, we have tried to give them an understanding of their responsibility to their fellow brothers and sisters on this earth, of their duty to love those around them.  Sometimes this is harder than we thought - beginning with them loving their ACTUAL brothers and sisters, but sometimes we are rewarded with witnessing a self-generated act of love, selflessly performed with no expectation of recognition.  This is when we take a moment (if only a small one) to silently thank the Lord for helping us instill in them a higher purpose.

Gable and Maddy have the opportunity to focus on serving others with their school as well.  A large part of their graduation requirements depend on their service both within their own communities as well as outside their limited sphere.  They have both had the opportunity to enter worlds they would otherwise not have seen and not only see them, but join them.  As a school they will focus on a different community and their classes will all incorporate some of their learning on this particular focus for the year.  This years focus was on the homeless and there have been school-wide assignments and activities relating to this (like reading the soloist etc.).  One of the orchestra assignments Maddy had was to go to a homeless shelter downtown and perform a concert.  While other groups created packages and made lunches, Gable was part of the group that brought the lunches and served them.  What a wonderful opportunity it was for them to get to meet and converse with some people who they previously might have only seen as a figure behind a cardboard sign.  To understand that these are people - just like them and they all have their own story.