What God Says AboutHow We TreatOthers<strong>kyle</strong> <strong>butt</strong>Whoever came up with the saying, “Sticks andstones may break my bones, but words can never hurtme,” did not know what he was talking about. Meanwords from other people can be very harmful. Whenanother person makes fun of us, calls us ugly, or sayswe are dumb or stupid, that really hurts. If we are notcareful, we will start to believe that we are “ugly,”“dumb,” or “stupid” and we will start to feel very badabout ourselves. This happensto many people. After peoplemake fun of them fora long time, they beginto think of themselves asworthless or no good. Becausethey feel bad aboutthemselves, they often tryto make others feel just likethey do. In order to do that,they begin to make fun of otherpeople, trying to bring them downand make them feel bad. Most ofthe time, when a person is a bullyand is mean to another person, itis because that bully does not feelgood about himself or herself.them, first we must know that we are important andspecial to God. There is not a single person in thisworld who is worthless or no good. Every person iscreated by God, and has special talents and abilitiesthat no one else in the world has. The Bible explainsthat humans are “made in the image of God” (Genesis1:26). Each human has a soul that will live forever.Jesus explained that if God takes care of the birds ofthe air, then He will take care of you, since you (as ahuman) are much more valuable than birds. Not onlythat, Jesus said that God knows exactly how manyhairs are on your head (Matthew 10:30). The apostlePeter said that we can tell God about all of our caresand troubles, because God cares about us (1 Peter5:7). In fact, God thinks that we are so important thatHe sent His only Son to the Earth to die on the crossto show us the way to get to heaven. God created youwith amazing talents and abilities, and He knows thatyou are important. To God, it does not matter howgood you are in math, how fastyou can run, or howhandsome or pretty you are. To God you are valuablesimply because He created you.Because God thinks humans are so valuable, Hegets very angry with those people who are mean andmistreat their fellow human beings. Jesus told a storyabout a master who went on a trip and left a servant incharge of things. The servant thought that the masterwas going to be away for a long time, so the servantbegan to beat the other servants, and party with thedrunkards. The master surprised the servant and cameback early. When the master found that the servantwas mistreating others, he punished him very severely.Jesus told this story to remind us that being nice toothers is always very important (Matthew 24:45-51).While Jesus was on Earth, He often explained howwe should treat others. Jesus told how He would comeback some day and separate the evil people from thegood people. Jesus told those good people who hadobeyed God that they were going to heaven, becausethey had fed Him when He was hungry, visited Himwhen He was sick, and given Him water when He wasthirsty. The righteous people did not understand. Theydid not remember seeing Jesus sick, thirsty, or hungry.How could they have helped Him if they never sawHim? Then Jesus explained to them that anytime theyhelped their fellow human beings, they were actuallyhelping Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46). That is an importantlesson to learn. Just think about those people atyour school, or in your class, who do not have manyfriends, or are mistreated by others. Anytime you helpone of those kids, you are actually helping Jesus.Even though many people make fun of others, mistreatothers, and are mean to people, those who arefollowing Jesus should never do these things. Jesustold us how we should treat others. He said, “whateveryou want men to do to you, do also to them” (Matthew7:12). This statement is called the Golden Rule.You would not like for others to make fun of you, soyou should not make fun of others. You would wantyour classmates to include you in their fun, so youshould include others. You would want others to treatyou fairly, and respect your opinion, so do the samefor those around you.Always remember that you are special and Godcares about you, just as He cares for everyone in theworld. Because He loves humans, He gets very angrywhen people mistreat others. Whatever we do to thosein need, we do to Jesus. Let’s make sure that we helpothers, and treat them kindly, just like we would liketo be treated.In order to treat people theway God wants us to treat92Discovery • December 2007 www.DiscoveryMagazine.com www.DiscoveryMagazine.com December 2007 • Discovery 93© COPYRIGHT, APOLOGETICS PRESS, INC., 2010, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © COPYRIGHT, APOLOGETICS PRESS, INC., 2010, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED