"How do these floors get so dirty?" I asked from where I sat on our kitchen floor, wiping up spots that were within reach.

"I just went over them yesterday," I added before using my fingernail to scrape dried toothpaste off our hardwood floor.

As I made my way around the island in our kitchen, I tried to recall what happened yesterday to cause such a mess.

Not a thing, I decided, remembering that a friend had come over to ask for help with a program booklet for a charity event she was working on.

My thoughts drifted to this friend and how active she was in the community; so active that everyone in the city who was anyone would miss her if she were gone.

What would I want people to do if I were gone? I wondered, trying to keep my mind off the drudgery of the work at hand.

I wouldn't want them to be sad, I concluded. I'd just want them to look out for my daughters.

To take care of my sheep, I added as the words Jesus spoke in John 21:16 came to mind.

The thought of someone keeping an eye on Katie and Hollie also reminded me of something that happened just a few days earlier while seeing my daughters off to school.

"Have a great day!" I called out to the girls as they as they stepped onto the bus.

The driver welcomed them aboard and then waved to me as he reached for the handle to close the doors. A few seconds later I noticed Ed, our neighbor boy, running down the street perpendicular to the one the bus was on. His mother, unable to keep up with her son's pace, was jogging behind him.

I held up my hand to catch the driver's attention and pointed in the direction that Ed and his mother were coming from.

The driver glanced to his left and then looked back at me to nod in understanding. Thirty seconds later, it was Ed's turn to climb aboard but, when he put his foot on the first step, something caused him to slip and fall to the ground.

"Oh no," I said quietly, trying not to alarm his mother who had stopped before reaching the intersection and did not know that her son had fallen.

Not wanting to embarrass Ed by making a big deal out of the fall, I waited where I was to see if my help was needed. Thankfully, it was not.

As I watched Ed stand up and join the other kids, I realized that my concern for him was more than the common consideration a parent has for another person's child.

Why? I wondered as the bus started to drive away.

Maybe because I know how much his parents love him, I decided, remembering the way Ed's dad had spoken so affectionately at our last neighborhood party when he told I and several others about the day his son was born.

As I crossed the street to join his mother for the short walk home, I had another parental thought: If knowing a father's love compels us to look out for his children, shouldn't we treat everyone with the same degree of care and concern that I felt for Ed?

The answer became clear when I arrived home and turned to 1 John 4:7 where readers are instructed to "love one another, for love comes from God."

With the bible so clear on the subject, I wondered, why is it so difficult to be objective as we see people from God's, rather than our perspective?