By Ellie Girtz, 3rd grade
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” – Jeremiah 1:5
To me this Bible verse is a reminder that God knew me before I was born and also means God created me for a special purpose. It makes me want to treat others with love and kindness and speak up for others who can’t because every life is important.
One way I can live out this teaching is by telling others how God creates everyone different. He created everyone different so that we can all teach each other different lessons. I know that it’s a good thing for people to be different from each other.
I can live out the teachings of Jeremiah 1:5 by having a listening ear to a peer who I can tell is having a hard time. We can pray and thank God together for the life He has made for us when talking to a peer who is having a hard time. I would give them all of my full attention and not interrupt them to make sure they felt heard. I would try to put myself in their shoes to try to feel how they feel. I would tell them thank you, and I would make sure to check with that person later to make sure they are doing okay. Checking in with that person would hopefully make them feel good that I am still thinking about them.
Another way I can live out the Bible verse is by speaking up for others and speaking up for what is right. If a friend of mine is being a bully or being unkind to someone, I can tell them to stop. I can tell them to treat others the way you want to be treated. This would make the person think about how they are hurting others and how God would want them to be kind. It could make the person being bullied feel relieved that I stood up for them. If they see that I was brave, hopefully they would feel brave too. This would make me feel good about myself also because God has many messages for us about spreading love and kindness to everyone.
I can also live out this teaching by making a list of things that I am good at to remind myself that God made me a certain way. For example, I think I am good at helping other people get through a hard day. When I notice someone is sad, I try my best to talk to them and see if I can turn their bad day into a good day. When this happens I put it on a list, so then I can look back at it and remind myself that I am good at certain things.
I believe that God made everybody in the world different for a reason. Nobody is the same, and that’s a good thing. God has a plan for all of us, and I believe that we were put here to make the world a better place by helping each other and teaching each other how to be the best we can be.
Ellie Girtz won third place in the elementary school category of the Culture of Life Studies Program’s 2025 Pro-Life Essay Contest.