Boys, Girls, and Plumbers
GOD VALUES RESPECT BECAUSE EVERY HUMAN BEING WAS CREATED IN HIS IMAGE.
Bible Reading of the Day: Read Ephesians 5:33-6:5, 9.
Verse of the Day: “I see very clearly that God doesn’t show partiality. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:34-35).
“Girls are stupid!” Jeremy shouted.
“Oh, yeah?” his cousin, Leah, answered. “Well, boys are gross and disgusting!”
“Oh, yeah?” Jeremy countered. “Girls are—”
“Hey!” said Jeremy’s dad, interrupting the shouting match. “What’s going on here?”
“She doesn’t know how to play this game right,” Jeremy complained.
“He’s just a stupid, gross boy!” Leah answered, spitting out the last word as if it were the worst insult one human being could hurl at another.
“I see,” said Dad. “It sounds like you two are having trouble playing together.” He gripped the children’s hands and walked them over to the couch. “I don’t like it when you call each other names and act like girls are stupid and boys are disgusting.”
Dad paused and squeezed Leah’s hand in his. “Tell me, Leah, who made you? Who decided that you would be a girl?”
She thought for a moment. “God?” she answered.
Dad nodded, then turned to Jeremy. “And who made you?”
“God,” Jeremy answered, sounding as if he thought the question was too easy.
“Right,” Dad said. “And God made you in his image,” he said, pointing to Leah. “And he made you in his image,” he said, pointing to Jeremy. “Let me ask you something else,” he added. “What about dark-skinned people? Did God make them?”
“Yes,” Jeremy answered.
“And light-skinned people?”
“God made them, too!” Leah said.
“What about teachers? And plumbers?”
“God made them all, Dad!” Jeremy answered.
“That’s right. He made them all, and he made them all in his image. That means every one of them deserves to be respected as a human being who’s made in the image of God. That means you,” he said—turning to his son—”should respect girls. And you,”— he said to Leah—”should respect boys. Do you think you can do that?”
“I guess,” Leah said, shrugging.
“I can do it better than you can!” Jeremy taunted as he jumped up from the couch. Leah chased him out of the room.
Dad sighed. “One step at a time,” he said with a chuckle.
TO DO: Take turns listing all the varieties of people who are worthy of respect (including various races, nationalities, and occupations, as well as both sexes). Make the activity fun and lighthearted, but make it meaningful as well.
TO PRAY: “God, help us to remember that everyone is worthy of respect.”