By Phillip Hines

Once an elementary school principal addressed her students: 

“Children, three things are very important,” she began. “First, we want you to be happy.  Only you can make yourself happy. 

“Second, we want you to be safe. We never hurt anyone. We try hard to never hurt anyone’s feelings.  We never hurt another person’s body. Never throw rocks. If you throw a rock, you go home immediately.  Because we never throw rocks, we never even pick them up. Understand? We never even pick up rocks.”  

“Third, we want you to learn. This is a place to learn. Every day, when you go home, you should have learned something you did not know when you came in the morning.”

What a great lesson to learn! Imagine yourself living by those three rules each day.  

Today, decide to be happy. It is up to you.  

Today, don’t throw rocks at anybody. Don’t even pick them up. This is certainly needed in a day of social media, texting and Twitter.  

Today, learn something. When you go home at the end of the day, you should be wiser than you were in the morning.

Jesus taught these same rules for life in the Sermon on the Mount. Today, get out your Bible and take the time to read Matthew 5-7. This will only take a few minutes of your busy day, and it will be well worth your time.  

What a better world this would be if big people lived by the same rules as little people!