The Blue Team

A few weeks ago, I was asked to give a lesson to kids on Saturday afternoons. I hesitated. I didn't quite understand why there wasn`t someone from the congregation who could do this. For a variety of reasons, I decided to say yes, at least for the next month or so while our schedule doesn't have us traveling weekends.

I decided I wanted to do two things. I wanted to encourage the kids to really think about Spiritual issues and not just parrot answers to me. (kids seem to think the words God, Jesus or the Bible will answer any possible question a teacher asks) and I wanted to find something positive to say every week. Most of the kids tend to play the way they play in the streets--a good deal of pushing, shoving and complaining. This week I congratulated the girl who smiled when she ran.

Last week, I complimented the Blue Team. There are four teams, Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. The Blue team happened to have the very smallest child of all, which meant that they didn't win many of the relay races. This "smallest child" didn't like to lose and would cross his arms and scowl when he came in last. Then, I noticed that the team members started congratulating "the smallest child" everytime he participated, whether they won or lost. High fives, hugs, hoorays...he started smiling, and the whole team seemed to be having a much better time than the other teams. I don't how it happened (except that I saw the leader do it first), it is certainly not the way that I usually see teams of children play together, but it was very beautiful...hooray for the Blue team.