This Monday School post is short and sweet. It’s been one of those Mondays. A really full but good one. I almost waited to post but you can’t post Monday School on Tuesday. You just can’t.

Yesterday in home church we talked about the Golden Rule. We all know it: Do to others what you would have them do to you. Jesus said this right after he talked about fathers giving stones instead of bread and snakes instead of fish in Matthew 7.

I like this version of it from the TLB:

“Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of the laws of Moses in a nutshell.”  Matthew 7:12

And especially this one in The Message:

“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.”   Matthew 7:12

We know it but we don’t always practice it. It’s easy to know what we want others to do for us, but it’s hard to do those things for others. Everyday we deal with people not practicing the Golden Rule. And everyday people deal with me not going by this simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior.

But when I see it or experience it or even practice it myself……something happens. Even if only for that moment, I feel better. I’m hopeful. I’m happy and thankful. And the other person probably feels the same way.

Let’s be more aware of these opportunities to “grab the initiative” and do for others what we would want them to do for us. Sometimes it’s big things but most of the time it’s the small acts that make a big difference.

Photo by Caleb Martin on Unsplash