The virtue we focus on in the month of October is compassion… taking our stand with others through supportive companionship in their distress and woe. They say a crying baby in a nursery will trigger the others to join. Could this be connected to an inborn heart of compassion?
“The dew of compassion is a tear.”
– Byron
The church sermon I experienced this past Sunday was about the Good Samaritan and it reminded me that we all, like the bruised and battered man on the road side, desperately need the compassion of Christ to save us.
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
– Matthew 9:36-38
In October our Kindergarten students hear the story about Androcles and the Lion. In this story a runaway slave befriends a Lion by pulling a sharp thorn from its paw. This act of kindness, when moved by compassion, resulted in the freedom of both man and beast.
The more stories we wrap our students in that elevate the virtue of compassion the more, Lord willing, they will desire and cry out for the compassion of Christ. When more of our students long for the compassion of Christ, more of our students will be moved with compassion for others, for the sake of Christ.
