Yesterday pool time ended when a twin kicked his older brother in the face.
After we had bathed and cleaned up and my oldest had finally calmed down (his face was fine by the way), I took the twin aside. It had been a rough day of him fighting with his brothers over everything. So exasperated, I looked him in the eye and asked: “Honey, is this who you want to be?”
I realize now that may have been a weighty question for a five year old, but he shook his head no emphatically anyway looking quite serious. He apologized to me and ran off to make up with his brothers. They reunited easily and all was forgotten…
But that random question that popped out of my mouth at him stayed with me. And this morning as I sit in the quiet, it calls to me again:
“Is this who you want to be?”
Perhaps that is a question for all of us – is the person we are right now the person we want to be? Are we living for ourselves or for others? And if we believe we are a good person – can we not be better?
Is the world we are helping create right now the world we want to live in?
My prayer this morning is that God gives us the grace to examine ourselves and ask the tough questions. May we sit with God today and ask “Is this who You want me to be?” and if the answer we receive is no, may we be graced with all we need to change.
Above all, this morning, I pray for the grace of compassion – that it might drive us closer towards the people God knows we can be.
“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen
