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Baggage activity Bible in one year: 1 Samuel 27–29 Luke 13:1–22 Love them as yourself, because you were a foreigner in Egypt. Leviticus 19:34 Today's Scriptures & Insight: Leviticus 19:32–34 Karen, a middle school teacher, created an activity to teach her students to understand each other better. In "The Baggage Activity", students wrote some of the emotional weights they carried. The notes were shared anonymously, giving students a glimpse of each other's difficulties, often with a weeping response from their peers. Since then, the classroom has been filled with a deeper sense of mutual respect among young teenagers, who now have a greater sense of empathy for each other. Throughout the Bible, God has pushed His people to treat one another with dignity and show empathy in their interaction with others (Romans 12:15). As early in Israel's history as the book of Leviticus, God pointed the Israelites toward empathy, especially in their dealings with foreigners. He said that they "love them as themselves" because they too had been foreigners in Egypt and knew that difficulties intimately (Leviticus 19:34). Sometimes the burdens we carry make us feel like foreigners, alone and misunderstood, even among our peers. We do not always have an experience similar to that of resorting as the Israelites did to foreigners among them. However, we can always treat those whom God puts in our way with the respect and understanding we ourselves desire. Whether it's a modern high school student, an Israelite or something in between, we honor God when we do. Reflect & Pray Who around you might need your empathy for the burdens they carry? How can you "love them like yourself"? God, you know the weight in my heart and you kindly unhook me while I put my trust in You. Help me offer care and compassion to those in my life. 
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It costs us nothing to be kind and compassionate and perhaps lighten the load for others, and the reward is great. But when we are harsh and hateful and add to their burdens, the cost to ourselves is far greater than we realize. We not only lower our image in the eyes of others, we degrade the image of the very God we claim to serve. Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.
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