We have now come to our last virtue from Barbara C. Unell and Jerry L. Wyckoff’s book: 20 Teachable Virtues: Practical Ways to Pass on Lessons of Virtue and Character to Your Children. This virtue is Cooperation.

Cooperation
Cooperate: 1.to act or work with another or others; act together 2. To associate with another or others for mutual benefit.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,” - Philippians 2:1-30

There is a story about a little boy who was playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock and managed to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy and the rock was rather large.) When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall.

Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved-but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his little fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded.

At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father.

Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?”

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!”

“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.”

With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

As I think about cooperation, I cannot help but wonder if this might be the most important virtue in the sense that we must learn to cooperate with the divine grace God gives us in order to grow in our faith life. It is a matter of knowing that alone we can do nothing but with God we can do everything.

10 Steps to Develop Cooperation
1. Demonstrate cooperation by working with someone
2. Demonstrate cooperation by showing gratitude
3. Demonstrate cooperation by asking for help
4. Demonstrate cooperation by praying to God
5. encourage sharing
6. Set Family Goals
7. Encourage healthy competition
8. Create a sense of collaboration
9. Praise cooperation in others
10. Point out how Jesus chose to work with human beings in order to spread his Gospel.