Back to School with Buckets

Tonight was "Back to School Night" at our kids' school. Great night for sure but I can't stop there...great start to the year, great administration, great teachers, great vibe at the school...just great. So thankful to have our kids where they are and to have loving, talented adults in their lives to teach and inspire them with such enthusiasm. 

The theme at the school this year, as presented by our new Principal, is "How Full is Your Bucket?". Based on the #1 New York Times and #1 BusinessWeek bestselling book. He shared with us that the staff have all read this book and that the teachers are reading the children's book counterpart to the kids and implementing it in their classrooms. 

Even on the first day of school my kids came home talking about "the invisible buckets" that we all have and when you encourage someone, you add to their bucket and you add a drop to yours too. Of course then when they started quarreling,  (don't you just love that word? It makes me feel so retro. Like June Cleaver, "Ward dear,... Wally and the Beaver are quarreling again.") I immediately said..."Uh oh, what are doing to each other's buckets??" and then they apologized and that filled my bucket. :)

I love this idea. It's not new though, is it? The Bible says in Mark 12:31, 

The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.

So, you may ask, "the second...the second what?..and what's the first?" Well, if you're curious you'll just have to look it up... OK, or look here. 

Isn't it funny, or not really, that after all these years of being in a society together, it still comes down to being kind and loving toward each other. I've been reading and/or listening to audio books a lot lately and two of the books that I have read were centered around themes of some of the ugliest moments of humanity...racism toward blacks in the 60's and the holocaust in 1942. Neither of these are from very long ago...People who witnessed and lived through these events are still alive today. And hatred exists even now. Such a simple message and yet people still don't "get it". 

I love that our school is working toward teaching the kids to be kind, to give "genuine" compliments, to think of how our actions affect other people and to think of others beyond ourselves. The cool thing about the "bucket" idea is that when a bucket is full, it tends to slosh and splash around. A confident joyous heart overflows and spills onto the people around you. 

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. Matthew 12:34b-35

How is your bucket? Who fills it for you? Who takes away from it? How would you like your bucket to overflow and affect your husband, your children, your friends, your co-workers or strangers? 

This is one place where there should never be a drought. 
Every drop counts. :)