Thanks, Mrs. Raabe! (My Kindergarten Teacher)

    Robert Fulghum used to write his musings down and would share them with a few family members and friends. Some of it was pretty good. So good, in fact, that those family members and friends would photocopy his typewritten notes (often included in Christmas cards) and pass them on to coworkers and friends (before the days of those dreadful mass email forwards, people did that with photocopy machines :-). A little girl brought home in her school bag one multi-copied piece entitled, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” When her mom, a publishing professional, read it, she knew it was a gem. Contacting Fulghum, she convinced him to have it, and other articles he had written, published into a book that became a New York Times Best Seller, titled after the original article that so impressed her.
    I’m sure you’ve read the list, but let me repeat it here:
    “Share everything.
    “Play fair.
    “Don't hit people.
    “Put things back where you found them.
    “Clean up your own mess.
    “Don't take things that aren't yours.
    “Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
    “Wash your hands before you eat.
    “Flush.
    “Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
    “Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
    “Take a nap every afternoon.
    “When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
    “Be aware of wonder.
    “Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
    “The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
    “Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup––they all die. So do we.
    “And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all––LOOK.”
    Pretty good isn’t it. But it’s not just a cute list to make us smile. All of us have what it takes to succeed at work, at home…. in life. We’ve been taught what to do. We create chaos in our lives because we don’t do the obvious things.
    If some of you were to just start sharing, it would transform your lives. If some of you would start playing fair, it would change your marriages. Just think what would happen if everyone would stop taking things that aren’t theirs and at the same time stop hitting people. The plight of our cities would virtually disappear! So would international crises!
    Do you clean up your own messes….right away? Do you say you’re sorry when you hurt others….sincerely?
    Here’s a big one. Do you live your life, conscious that it’s going to be over….sooner than later?
    I have often said, “Most Christians are overfed and under-exercised. Our problem is not that we don’t really know enough of what the Bible says. Our real problem is that we tend not to practice what we do know. Kind of Fulghum’s point in his “Kindergarten” essay.
    So as we talk about Biblical solutions to our problems this summer, let’s think, “ACTION.” What does God want you to do with what you are learning. I don’t know the specifics for you, but I can guarantee you this, He wants you to put His principles into practice. TODAY!
    And that’s something you can do.