"My Brother"

I have twin boys in my class that I absolutely adore. They are so sweet to each other and to the other students in the class. I am so glad they are in my class because I love them soooo much!! They come from a great family--their parents and older brother are all so polite, respectful, and kind. I have been so impressed by the fact that these twins never fight with each other like you would expect brothers to fight. And to the contrary, they often help each other. Today I witnessed a very touching moment of them today that I wanted to share.

During circle time all the children sit on carpet squares. Sometimes it's a struggle for them to stay sitting on their carpet square for the whole 10-15 minutes, and so their favorite part is Weather, when one of them gets to walk over to the window to see what the weather is and then tell the class. It's a real treat to be able to get off your carpet square! :) The way I pick on a child to do this is by singing this song:

"Oh dear, what will the weather be?
Oh dear, what will the weather be?
Oh dear, what will the weather be?
[Enter name here], what will the weather be?"

When I start singing this song, all the children sit so nicely because they want me to pick on them. And after I say the name, there is always an immediate chorus of "Why didn't you pick ME?!"s and "Ms. Abbi, you didn't pick ME!!"s. And every day I have to tell the children that only one person gets to do the weather each day, and they will have their turn a different day.

Well today for weather I picked one of the twins, and right after I said the name, before any of the other children could even start complaining, the other twin brother punched his hand into the air in celebration and said with glee, "YES! MY BROTHER!" He was clearly extremely happy that his brother was picked for this special assignment.

That really touched me. It was a very powerful example to me of charity and selflessness. A* was able to forget himself for a moment and take joy in his brother's happiness, even when it meant that he was deprived of something he very much wanted. He wasn't thinking in terms of "me," he was thinking in terms of his brother. His brother's happiness was his happiness.

How difficult that can be for us, children and adults alike! We so often feel envious, resentful, or threatened by the success or good fortune of those around us. But we don't need to be. We can be like A* and think in terms of our brothers and sisters rather than ourselves. Their happiness can be our happiness. And because we are all part of God's family, we can exclaim like A*, "Yes! My brother!" (or sister) whenever someone around us is blessed or succeeds. I want to be more like A* and be able to say this easily and from the heart as he so evidently can.