That's Not Fair!

This week, I spoke at the chapel for the elementary kids at Micah's school. I thought I could talk about selfishness. Here is kind of what I said.

"Sometimes my family will order a pizza from Dominoes. There are three people in my family. A large pizza has 8 slices. So that means that two people will get three slices and one will just get two. Do you think that is fair? Do you ever get upset when everyone gets a big bowl of ice cream and you get a small one? Or how about when your brother or sister gets to stay up later then you do? It's not fair!"

So then I gave the kids situations and they got to yell, "That's not fair!"

Then I read from James 4:1 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?" And I explained that we fight with each other when we don't get what we want. It is our selfishness that is causing these quarrels. Then I read from Phil. 2:3-4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." I talked about how we should think of others as more important and to be thoughtful of the other person's interests.

Then I said how sometimes God is not fair with us. And I told the story of Jonah quickly and got to how God did not give the people of Ninnevah what they deserved. And how I imagined Jonah sitting under his tree saying "that's not fair!"

I then read Psalm 103:10-11 "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth,so great is his love for those who fear him;" I explained that we do bad things and we deserve death like the people of Ninnevah did. But that God had mercy on us and he gave us a second chance (like he did for Jonah also). Our second chance is Jesus. Jesus was punished for everyone's sin. He could have yelled out on the cross "That's not fair!" but instead he did the most unselfish thing and said, "Father, forgive them."

We prayed, thanking God for the second chance and asked Him to help us to think of others first.

One of the things I had asked during the talk was "Who knows what selfishness is?" Several kids raised their hands and I called on one or two. One boy kept his hand in the air until the end of my talk and then I called on him. He gave his definition of selfishness. I thought it was funny that he kept his hand up the whole time and then gave his answer as if I had just asked the question. Kids are funny.