For the Year of Mercy I’ve been focusing on mercy with my fourth-grade CCD class. I asked them to notice from week to week any instances of mercy, in their family or among their friends, in the news, or that they performed themselves. Here are some of their responses.
“Well we were driving along and my father was in a hurry because we were late getting to my grandmother’s. The woman driving in front of us stopped her car right in the middle of the road and everyone was honking and driving around her but my father stopped and got out to see if she needed help. And she did… she had a flat tire and had no idea what to do, so my father changed the tire for her. She was really happy. And I was really proud of my father.”
“I invited this kid to my birthday party, even though he didn’t invite me to his party. And now we’re friends!”
“Almost every night my brother is SO annoying! I mean he just won’t stop talking right when I’m trying to go to sleep. He’ll be popping me with a pillow, turning the light on and off, singing goofy songs really loud, and usually I just freak out and start yelling at him to shut up. But last night I didn’t! I showed mercy on him and I just ignored him!”
“I wanted some popcorn in the cafeteria and I got up to the counter at the same time as this other kid and I really had a craving for popcorn but the boy said ‘I forgot my lunch and I only have enough money for a bag of popcorn’ because everything else costs more so I said, Oh go ahead, you have the popcorn and I’ll get something else. He said thank you. And I got an ice cream.”
“My mom says we should never throw out our clothes or shoes that don’t fit us any more because someone else can use them. So we bring big bags of clothes to the church when they’re having a collection. And my mom also bought a lot of school supplies for the school supply collection in September. It was nice to think about poor kids getting the stuff they need.”
And today we celebrate...