James 2:1 "My brothers, do not show favortism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ" Wow - do you show favoritism in anything - your children, nieces, nephews, or friends? How about our lifestyles and those of others? I think God's word makes it clear that we are not to show favortism and that God sets that example. (Romans 2:11)
Even more often I think what happens in our day to day lives is that we look at things around us that we desire to have, or people that are different and things that they have and try to adjust our lives to fit, then we say, 'Oh God would want me to have this' or 'Oh God would want me to be like this'. What we are really doing is putting God into the box that we think He should be in, instead of living the life that He has put in front of us. God wants us to be who He made us to be. He wants us to be faithful to what He has called us to do. Yes we can have things. Yes we can do things. Yes we have give things to our family and friends. But, we are not to put ourselves, our families, our friends above anyone else.
When I teach in a classroom I stress to my students that we are all alike. I don't see one student as being any different than another. I don't see a different skin color, a different socioeconomic background, etc. What I see is a student that needs to learn. I work to build a sense of community within the classroom, a sense of respect and cohessiveness. Typically it takes 21 days to build the routine in the classroom. If you have a break in that 21 days, you have to start over. I have been blessed to hear from students years after they left my classroom room that they had been successful and that sense of respect and community was carried through with their mindset. Did this work everytime - no, but did we try - yes! Was there favortism - no! This is a securlar example, carrying out a godly principle.
I guess if you are going to show favortismis should be in one place - in our faith to Jesus Christ!
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