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"A ladybug!" 3-year-old Karis squealed with delight when she spotted the teensy-weensy bright red bug crawling curbside during our walk around the neighborhood.

Immediately she squatted down, resting her chin on her knees, and placed her hand in front of the ladybug that crawled right on—as if that's exactly what the tiny bug wanted to do.

"Oh, cute!" Karis cooed as she brought her chubby little hand to her face, so she and the ladybug could see eye-to-eye. She then stood up and expertly began a cycle of moving her hands, one in front of the other, so the ladybug could keep crawling forward, getting nowhere.

"Are you all right?" she asked tenderly as she continued carrying on a conversation with her new little friend. "Do you need to find your mommy and daddy?"

Karis kept talking to the ladybug as we slowly walked on a few more steps. Then she looked up. "The ladybug likes me," she announced with confidence.

Pretty soon the ladybug tired of her monotonous stroll across Karis's hands. Slowly she lifted her miniature wings and flew off.

"Whee!" Karis shouted in delight once more. "She's going home. Bye-bye ladybug. Be careful!"

I read and hear a lot these days about our responsibility to care for our planet. Save energy. Think "re-everything": recycle, reuse, repurpose. Conserve resources. Go green. All good stuff, but I sometimes get too lazy to make the simple sacrifices in my lifestyle that might make a difference in our world. Probably it's because I lack motivation. To trade in all my light bulbs for the more efficient kind. To buy only earth-friendly cleaning products. To quit buying water in the small disposable plastic bottles.

But I'd just witnessed a major motivation—a child's tenderness to one of the smallest of God's creatures. And in that moment, I found plenty of good reasons to make those small sacrifices to assure the earth will be filled with friendly ladybugs for generations to come.

"I'm glad God made ladybugs," I told my granddaughter as we headed towards home.

"Me too, Oma."

God spoke: "Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."
—Genesis 1 (The Message)

Carol Kuykendall is a Consulting Editor for MomSense magazine and the author of Five Simple Ways to Grow a Great Family and co-author of What Every Mom Needs, available in the MOPShop.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/MomSense magazine. Click here for reprint information on MomSense.

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