I want to use my gifts to help others.
This season, we’ve been talking about fame, and there’s a book in the Old Testament of the Bible that shows two different ways of looking at fame. It’s called the book of Esther, named after a young woman who was chosen to become queen.
In this story, Esther and her cousin Mordecai use their fame in order to help others. Meanwhile, another character in the story, Haman, uses his fame to help himself.
The book of Esther says that when Esther became queen, her cousin Mordecai also became a government official. Mordecai was older than Esther and had adopted her, so he was more like her father figure. One day, Mordecai overheard two people plotting to kill the king. He told Queen Esther, and she was able to warn the king, saving his life.
Meanwhile, the king promoted another official named Haman and made him the most powerful guy in the land, other than the king himself. The king commanded that everyone would bow to Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by. But Mordecai would not bow down to Haman.
This made Haman angry. He wanted to punish Mordecai so badly thathe decided to punish all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, who were living in the land. He spoke badly about the Jews to the king and got the king to order for the Jews to be killed. The king did not know that his own wife, Queen Esther, was also a Jew.
Mordecai heard about this plan and told Queen Esther. He told her that she was the one who would have to speak to the king and save the Jews. This was dangerous, because no one—not even the queen—was allowed to speak to the king without an invitation. But with Mordecai’s encouragement, Esther agreed. She would risk her own life to speak to the king.
Before Esther told the king, something else happened. The king was reminded of what Mordecai had done to save his life. He asked Haman whathe could do to honor someone who had done him a great service. Haman didn’t know the king was talking about Mordecai. Instead, Haman thought the king wanted to honor him! He told the king thathe should dress this person in royal robes and have him paraded around the city on the king’s horse while someone shouts, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!”
The king loved this idea—and asked Haman to go do all that not for himself, but for his biggest enemy, Mordecai!
Conversation Starters
- Is it better to help others or justhelp yourself?
- When was a time when you were able to help someone else?
- Why is it better to help others instead of justhelping yourself?
- What is one way you can help someone else?
- When have you been tempted to justhelp yourself and no one else?
- When have you been able to use what you have or who you are to help someone else?
Go Deeper
Open Galatians 5:13-15 in BibleGateway (NLT)This week, read Galatians 5:13–15 with your child. What does it mean to love
your neighbor as yourself? What do
you think it looks like to “destroy” one
another with our words and actions?
What does it look like to serve one another in love? Together, come up with an idea for how your family can serve someone else this week.