Happy Girls Day!
By Candi Lopes, Children’s Ministry Coordinator
Growing up in Hawai’i, we get to learn about and experience numerous cultures and traditions. I have always appreciated this and how we are able to embrace the different ways people celebrate their heritage and practice their customs. Today, March 3rd, is Girl’s Day, which is known in Japan as Hinamatsuri, or Doll’s Day. I remember in elementary school, this was the day the girls always got to be excused first to recess or lunch. The boys were also encouraged to help put the girls’ chairs on their desks at the end of the day. (This was reversed when we would recognize Boy’s Day on May 5th.)
When I was a preschool teacher, it was very important to recognize different cultures of the students in my classes. I always enjoyed learning about the different cultural celebrations as I taught the kids and celebrated diversity with them. Families would bring in special items, like costumes or foods from their cultures, to share with the class and to enhance the learning experience. Learning developmentally appropriate ways to teach young children about diversity in the classroom was a huge growing and learning process for me as well. I believe that accepting differences and cultures around the world is pleasing to God as we navigate how to love others the way Jesus would.
Last week the Ko’olau Kids lesson was about the Good Samaritan, where the bottom line was “Be kind to people who are different from you.” The kids learned about how the Samaritan, who was different and disliked by the Jews, was the least likely person to help the Jewish man who was beaten on the road, but he helped him anyway.
The God Time lesson for the kids included a hint: It’s not just about being polite. Sometimes it means sacrificing your comfort, your resources, or your time to show others how valuable they are. The kids learned about kindness all month, which is showing others how valuable they are by how we treat them. God calls us to show kindness to everyone because everyone is valuable to Him.
Acts 11:2-18 is an account in the Bible where God taught Peter about not showing partiality in how he treated others. God gave him a vision to show him to accept non-Jews as followers of Jesus in spite of their being of different ethnicities. “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:34-36)
As Girl’s Day was traditionally a festival to wish for the health and the prosperous maturation of young girls, God continues to grow us and mature us as He walks alongside us. May He show us where we can get better in showing kindness to others who may be different from us. We are all His creation after all.
“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Philippians 1:6, The passion Translation)
I would like to end with the prayer on the God Time lesson for the kids:
“Dear God, thank You for making me, me. But thank You for making other people different! Those differences are beautiful. Help me not to be afraid to see the differences in other people, but instead to appreciate the beauty that comes from the unique ways you’ve made each of us. Please help me to be kind to people that don’t act like me, don’t look like me, don’t talk like me, and don’t believe like me. Help me to show people who are different from me just how valuable they are. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.”
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