Child Innocence

This past weekend was my family reunion, and I spend most of the day playing with my cousin's 3 year old daughter. Her imagination is wonderful, and she is incredibly smart. All she wanted was someone to play with her and she was happy. We played with playdough on a table, I made hamburger and she made a hotdog. We had fun together, she couldn't remember my name so she called me "Chloe." She giggled when I sat at the bottom of the slide to catch her. I was pushing her on the swings and all it took to make her giggle like crazy was for me to lean around and say "BOO!"

She made me really think about the innocence of children. Lately I have been noticing that a lot more and thinking more about it and what God felt about it. When it comes to making us happy we all want more more more. We want things to be bigger and better, the newest of electronics, the better cell phone. We cannot be happy with the things that we have. We cannot be happy with the simple thing in life like playing on a park playground, or watching the sunset with someone we love. God has given us so much in life to appreciate yet we want none of it and don't appreciate any of it. It's like we don't know how the way we did as kids. I mean how many of us will spend hours watching the clouds the way a child would? How many of us stopped whatever we did and colored a picture?

Kids have this innocence about them, that goes away somehow, sometime. They have the simplest of answers even if they don't know the answers. There have been times when I asked kids a question and their answer made me giggle because it was so innocent. As adults we want concrete answers and simple "because thats the way God wanted it" doesn't help anymore. We want to know WHY God wanted it a certain way, WHY God created us. We can't be happy with the fact that God created us. You ask Sydeny why she created a hotdog from playdough and she will tell you either "cause i anted to" or "i don't know." She didn't need a reason for why she did what she wanted to do.

We don't have that same thinking when it comes to God. My cousin's daughter thanked me for holding her hand when we crossed the road, do we thank God for holding our hand through a trial? No, if anything we BLAME him for the trial. We barely ever thank God for the small things let alone the big things in life. Children find it easier to thank not just the people around them, but also God for the simpler things. Children appreciate it all more than we do, which makes me wonder, do they appreciate God more than adults do? I think children have the innocence to understand things more than we give them credit for, meaning they have the ability to understand things that we have a hard time grasping. They don't complicate things by wondering Why something like cancer happens. They may ask questions, like how does one get better, but they don't want to know why it happens.

I think a lot of the time when children are taught about Jesus and something bad happens they believe it was His will and that He wanted it to happen and that is enough for them. Could it be that simple? Yet adults make it complicated because we are never as satisfied with things the way children are?

Innocence of Children

Of course throughout the week we had to deal with different problems with our children. Things like name calling, hitting, one throwing stones or something, some getting hurt, but one major thing we had to deal with; well major for the kids; was when one didn't want to be friends with the other. One boy Michael May was so upset that Willie was mad at him, and he was crying because he said he said so many mean things to Willie and that he'd never forgive him. At dinner I sat with them and Michael said he was sorry and Willie said he still wanted to be his friend...later they shook hands and all was well. Why can we adults do that? Why is it that a simple I'm sorry doesn't work with us, the way it does children?

It seemed so simple to me when Michael was upset, say your sorry and Willie will definitely forgive him, but when someone hurts us adults do we forgive instantly? No. We hold on to that hurt and pain. We hold grudges and I know I talked about grudges a while ago, but it was brought to my eyes once more at camp. Willie didn't hold a grudge towards Michael because he said he didn't want to be friends. As soon as Michael said he was sorry all was well again. That is one thing that God wants us to think about and act when he tells us to be like children. They don't judge, they are quick to forgive, don't worry about tomorrow, most of all they put total trust in things they don't see: Santa, Tooth-fairy, Easter Bunny, and for many Jesus. Why do adults have a hard time accepting Jesus simply because we can't physically see him? I'll talk more on that subject tomorrow.

A few of our kids lost teeth during the week. We told them to take the tooth home and put it under their pillows because since cell phones didn't have service at Laurel Hills State Park the Tooth-fairy wouldn't be able to find us...they believed us! They thought that was good reasoning. Why is it so hard for us to think the same way a child would? We lost our innocence somewhere along the line and we need to get it back in a sense.