The Good Samaritan

My daughter gave a talk in church last Sunday during "Primary" -- the meeting where all the youth are gathered together. She's not quite six-years-old, and is just learning to read, so even though what follows may seem pretty simple, it is quite an achievement. She stood before roughly 80 people, both kids and adults, and carefully walked her way through the handwritten text in her innocent and sweet little voice. She did marvelously! The pictures you see here were shown during her talk. Here's her talk:

I Show My Faith in Jesus Christ When I Serve Others
Jesus served others his whole life. He did many miracles. He blessed people. He told us of a story about a Samaritan. A man was hurt on the side of the road. Two men saw him and did not stop to help. A third man came by. He was a Samaritan. He stopped to help when others did not.

I am trying to serve. When I was in kindergarten sometimes other kids fell off the tricycles. I would help them up. I felt happy when I helped. I am trying to be like Jesus.


I really enjoyed sitting and watching her speak. I was so very pleased that she was able to work her way through it, reading every word carefully and clearly. Even the other adults in the room seemed impressed, and it was heart-warming hearing her share her thoughts.

When the children have been assigned to talk, my wife has a pretty good strategy for helping them write them. She will sit down with them and ask them questions about the topic, then write down their answers on a piece of paper. She'll then go through and, with their help, organize it into a coherent talk. In this case, my wife sat down with my daughter on Saturday afternoon and just asked her questions, such as:

"Can you tell me the story about the Good Samaritan?"

"How do you help other people?"

"Can you think of an example of when you helped others?"

"How do you feel when you help other people?"

Afterwards, she talks with them a little more about the story, even asking her why it was that two people would pass by without helping. It was a very good experience, and I think she learned a lot. The hard part now, is in helping her apply it. As a young child, mentally she's still pretty self-centered, but I will watch with interest as she learns to think of other people.

References:
-- Scripture: Luke 10:25-37
-- First Image: Artist, Del Parson, © 1992 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA
-- Second Image: Artist, Walter Rane, © 2002 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA