For the majority of my life, “you’re such a child” was thrown around as if it was a derogatory term. I was raised by those types of parents who think their baby is too “mature” for certain shows or activities. So in church, I was put in the teenagers Sunday school group. The boring one that sat around and read and talked about the Bible, rather than watching Veggietales like a normal 9 year old. Instead of watching Peter Pan and Show White, I watched the X-files and Star Trek because cartoons were too kiddy.
The older I’m getting, the more it seems that innocence and humility or not knowing is more admirable than an aura of wisdom. True wisdom, after all, like Socrates exclaims “I know nothing!” and continues on the daily to learn and grow. The most wise individuals I’m sure we all know, will continue to say no matter what their age (even the ones in their 90’s) that they truly know nothing at all.
Ironically, the Jesus’ writings in the Bible likewise refer to a child-like attitude as desirable:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
I rarely hear a child waking up dreading another day. Or fretting about being an adult or if they’ll ever get married.
Yet somewhere in between teenage life, and young adulthood, we loose out innocence and optimism for life. Don’t we? Life starts looking bleak and a struggle to rise from the top.
Whatever happened to the days of imagination and days that seemed to last forever? Adventure and discovery? Absorbing like a sponge? Afterall, medicine used to think at a certain age we stopped growing neural patheways – but now realizes this is just not true! We’re not done after we hit adulthood, we can continue growing and learning.
What do you think? Naive? Immature? Admirable or “childish”?
Thoughts?
For Your Thoughts 