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I try to be Christ-like. I try to do the right things. I try to say the right words. I try to think the right thoughts.
I try to smile at people as they pass. I try to support the appropriate causes. I try to love my neighbors even when they don’t love me back. I try to be kind and supportive to those in need.
Every day, I try to be like Christ.
Every day, I fail. I laugh at the wrong joke. I pass judgment on someone else’s life. I turn a blind eye to life’s injustice.
I’m a wannabe environmentalist. Humanity has put a huge strain on the earth and it’s up to us to revise our way of life to repair and prevent future damage. But if I’m completely honest, I don’t really do my fair share. Yes, we recycle more than we throw away. We adjust our thermostats so we’re cold in the winter and hot in the summer. And I don’t run the water while I brush my teeth.
But, I don’t always remember to take my reusable mug to Starbucks. I commute in my car, by myself more than 30 minutes to work every day. I love the personal-sized package of Oreo cookies. And as a parent, there are some moments I believe even the most ardent, earth-loving, card-carrying environmentalist would buckle to ozone burning temptation. Here are a few temptations to which I’ve fallen prey:
As I enter the door to pick up Squirts from “school,” I find him playing in the large gathering room with other kids. He looks up, smiles and runs to give me a hug. All smiles and laughs today.
Before we head home, I say we should check his folder in his class for any important notes from his teacher. As sure as we forget to check the all-important folder, we’ll miss the message telling us every child should bring a lunch or our enrollment fee is doubling.
Squirts stops smiling.
“OK,” he says, “but don’t look at the board.”
Recently, a Facebook “friend” posted a status update about the inherent evil of humanity. It’s not usually the kind of status update I’m drawn to read, but I was fascinated with how adamantly convinced she was that human beings are, at our core, pure evil.
The moment Squirts was born, a lot of things crossed my mind. I was struck by the enormity of his feet. The volume of his voice seemed to have no limit. The color of his skin was a pink like nothing I’d ever seen before. The fact that we had not selected a middle name suddenly became of utmost importance (in that moment, we gave up trying to decide and gave him two middle names).
