Bob Goff - Love Does for Kids

CONTENTS

BOB GOFF is the founder of Love Does, a non-profit organization that operates schools and pursues justice for children in conflict areas such as Uganda, Somalia, and Iraq. Bob is a lawyer and serves as the honorary consul for the Republic of Uganda to the United States. He is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Law School and Point Loma Nazarene University and lives in San Diego with Sweet Maria, their kids, and their extended family.

LINDSEY GOFF VIDUCICH loves kids. She began her teaching career at a therapeutic childcare center in Seattle and went on to teach kindergarten in Nashville, first grade in Salem, Oregon, and both first and second grades in San Diego. Lindsey lives with her husband, Jon, and spends most of her free time creating art and living new stories with her family.

W hen I was in kindergarten, we had nap time every afternoon. I know, it sounds so boring, right? I thought so too. The only thing I liked about nap time was a special job I hoped to get. Every day, the teacher would pick someone to be the Wake-Up Fairy. The Wake-Up Fairy got to put on wings, tap people on their shoulders with a magic wand, and announce that it was time to wake up. I thought it was the coolest job in the world, and I couldnt wait for my turn.

One day, my moment finally camemy teacher picked me to be the Wake-Up Fairy! Its finally my chance! Ill be the best Wake-Up Fairy the world has ever seen, I thought to myself.

I put on the fairy wings, grabbed the wand, and headed around the room to do my job, but I was so excited that I forgot to walk carefully. As I ran through the classroom, tapping my friends on their shoulders, I stepped on somebodys nose. My teacher wasnt happy. In fact, Id had so much trouble listening and following directions that she took away my wand and wings.

To tell you the truth, it felt pretty awful. I didnt mean to hurt anyone; I was just so excited to do my job that I forgot to look where I was going.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever tried your hardest to do the right thing but messed up anyway? Weve all messed up now and then, and it can feel pretty awful.

What I learned later in life from Jesus is that when we mess up, we dont have to keep feeling awful. When Jesus picked out His friends and asked them to spend time with Him, He didnt go to the people who were the smartest in school or the most popular. He didnt even look for the people with fancy jobs or nice houses or those who made a lot of money. He definitely didnt look for people who always listened to their teachers or the ones who hadnt made mistakes before.

The Bible says Jesus saw a few fishermen near the edge of a lake and chose them to be His closest friends. I bet those fishermen had so much trouble in school that they didnt even go anymore! They probably didnt even have their nets on the right side of the boat most of the time, but Jesus picked them anyway.

Jesus asked a tax collector to follow Him too. Nobody liked tax collectors because they stole other peoples lunch money and called it their own. In fact, Jesus spent so much time with people who had made big mistakes that people started saying not-so-nice things about Jesus behind His back. But Jesus didnt care what it would look like if He loved people who had made mistakes. He wanted everybody who had ever messed up to know that He liked them all the same. He even used their mistakes to prove how much He really loved them.

Its sometimes easy to think that when we make a mistake we are somehow a little less worthy of being loved, or that when people think about us theyll only think about the mistake we made. What I didnt realize when I made my big mistake in kindergarten is that Gods love for us doesnt change on our worst days. Come to think of it, we cant earn more of Gods love on our best days. We are simply loved by God, no matter what, and because of Jesus, God doesnt define us by our mistakes.

That day as the Wake-Up Fairy wasnt my only bad day at school. School was always hard for me, and at times I wanted to quit. But you know what? I didnt. I believed that Jesus loved me even when I struggled because the stories I read about Jesus showed He didnt see people for their mistakes. He saw them for who they were becoming, even when they couldnt see it for themselves.

What I didnt know as a failed Wake-Up Fairy was that someday, if I kept at it, I would go to school to become a lawyer. I would get the chance to help kids around the world by starting new schools that they could go to. And the one rule we have for students at our schools is this: we always try our best, but when we make mistakes, we remember how much Jesus loves usno matter what!

Jesus knew that mistakes dont keep people from doing important things. Remember those fishermen He met by the lake? They would end up traveling all over, telling people about Jesus. And the tax collector? He eventually started a church. Can you believe that? All of this happened because Jesus told each of His friends who they were becoming, and they believed Him. So the next time you make a mistake, just think to yourself: I am loved, and I am Gods... and I wonder who God is turning me into.

Heres the answer:

You are becoming a helper.

You are becoming a leader.

You are becoming love.

F rom the moment I opened my eyes that morning, something felt a little funny.

Blink.

Blink. Blink.

I felt like I was wearing a pirate patch over one eye, which would have been really cool. But nothing was covering my eye. As if someone had flipped a switch, I suddenly couldnt see out of my right eye. I put my hand over my left eye, and everything was dark.

Now, it turns out that even though I wasnt great at school when I was a kid, I love to start schools. Over the past few years, Ive gotten to travel around the world and work with some incredible people to open schools for kids. On this particular morning, I was in Iraq, meeting with some new friends and making plans for another school. This was a big trip, and Id be visiting a couple other countries before heading home, so I figured I could get by with one eye and wait to see a doctor.

When I got back to San Diego, I finally went to visit my eye doctor. Shes one of the best eye doctors in the whole world. When she heard that Id kept traveling without getting my eye checked, she shook her head.

Bob, she said. You should have come to me sooner!

Thankfully, my doctor was able to do surgery right away. The best part was that I got to wear a real eye patch afterward! I had to keep my eye covered with the eye patch for a few weeks, so I spent that time imagining how great it would be to see again.

The moment finally arrived for my doctor to take off the eye patch, but something surprising happened. I opened my right eye, but I still couldnt see very well! I didnt see complete darkness anymore, but the whole world still looked fuzzy, like when you open your eyes underwater.