Adults Should Know Better Than That

Here we are in the Christian bookstore, looking for something to buy my nephew for his First Holy Communion.  Lucy and I are shopping and I am giving her constant reminders about how she is not to touch anything unless she's buying it.  (I, on the other hand, am touching everything, not certain whether I will buy ANY of the items either... good example-setter, but oh well. :) ) 

Lucy begins to examine a crucifix and notes the thorns on Jesus' head as she talks to herself.  Suddenly, she looks up and states,  "There were mean people who took Jesus and put him in jail, then nailed him to the cross... They were adults, Mom, right?  Well, adults should know better than that... right, Mom?" 

I love the logic this little one is going through.  My only wish would be that the logic begins to seep into her own every day activities! :)

It's so obvious to most children between what is right and what is wrong, yet temptation is always there to tempt us to deviate from God's plan.  If only the world was run through a child's eyes of clarity.  Jealously, ignorance, and arrogance seem to cloud our judgment.  Life is logical: give and you shall receive, repay kindness with kindness, live every day as if it were your last, etc.  Wish it were that easy...

As adults, we need to return to our elementary school sandboxes and remember what we once learned. Reminds me of the book, "All I Really Needed to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten."

On that note, I'll leave you with Robert Fulghum's words of wisdom...

Here's a few ideas we need to reconsider as adults:

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/ ]