Wistful thinking

I love it when I start my mornings with an insight, especially one of a divine nature.  Over and over I keep reading about how I need to trust God (in and for everything) and yet being a dunce, I don’t.  I read repeatedly about the need for that childlike faith, emphasis childlike and because I am an adult I can’t quite remember what that type of faith possesses.  Until this morning.

I had a remarkable afternoon with a friend who thinks I’m over the top.  Now don’t go thinking I’m bragging, I’m not that good, but there are people in your life who are able to be enjoyed that much that you are naturally joyous in their presence.  I’m fortunate to be able to say that I can recognize this.  And this morning it hit me.

That childlike faith is the same thing as the joy that wells up in me when I am with those certain people in my life.  Life is not without its trials, but when we pour ourselves into those tests trying to ace them, we find ourselves mired in the darkness of chaos unable to navigate.

To some, I may seem immature or a Pollyanna of sorts, and to them I’d like to say, it’s a choice.  Believe me, I know the seriousness of life and there is many a day when I feel the full responsibilities of those seriousness’s.

Each day dawns with a new horizon.  This morning one of my dogs licked me awake, for some that would be considered gross, but for me, a dog lover, it was being awakened by a kiss, saying c’mon Mom it’s that time when you get up and feed me.  Each day our goldens wake with that “faith” that I will take care of them, love them, feed them, play with them, walk them!  Dogs get it; kids get it…..it being faith, believing without reservation that their needs will be met.

So this morning, I understood as the clouds slowly started revealing the “Son” that it isn’t my lack of maturity that is constantly wanting to find the “play” in life, it is that essence of childlike faith that wants to be recaptured.  We adults have forgotten how to play and this is understandable with the carnage we face each day, but somewhere deep inside each of us is that inner child who longs to surface and engage. 

Final thought and this one is for young parents.  I am well aware of the number of adults who never learned to play as children, please, please, please, don’t take your kids childhoods away from them, they will grow up all too soon.  Love them, teach them to laugh, sometimes even at themselves.  Let them have fun and by fun, I mean running, skipping, jumping, exploring not just “gaming” on the TV.

The joys in my life are many and especially include those people with whom I find that when I’m in their presence I am able to feel God’s which then allows my inner child to recognize and desire to rejoice.  It is during that exuberance that I long to “play.”  Yes, I’m a nut, and maybe the part of me that went to college and majored in Physical Education was the part of me that secretly knew the joy of playing.  I guess I’ll have to admit that I don’t want that part of me to grow up then.

Second final thought, direct from a devotional “God sometimes lines your nest with thorns” I have to wonder if that is so we don’t get too comfortable in them!

Looking up!~Barb