Tuesday, December 22, 2009

On Being in Charge of Yourself...a kid's philosophy of life

After church last Sunday, my brood and I piled into the van.  I noticed that my 13 yr old, Caleb, hadn't put on his seat belt so I said teasingly, "Son, I know that seat belts are 'cool', but neither is being dead."

My seven year old, Brigham, spoke up, "But Momma, then you get to go to Heaven."  Uh oh, I've probably just scared him for life! Quickly I attempted to recover by telling him that yes Heaven is great but we don't want to go earlier than we are supposed to. 

He pondered that and said, "Yeah, if you die young you can't get married, have kids, be in charge of yourself, or play video games."

Ok, the marraige and kids were givens, but "be in charge of yourself and play video games", where did that come from?

I've been thinking about that conversation.  We can guess what "being in charge of yourself" means to a seven year old, but I couldn't help but wonder, will he be disappointed when he grows up?  I mean do YOU feel in charge of yourself? Really?  What would that look like for an adult?  My first thought was to be free of fear.  Or how about free of debt?   Free from addiction?  Can I ever feel in charge of myself while I am overweight???

Whew!!!

This is a lot to think about, perhaps I'll take a break and go play a video game.  Maybe Brigham has the purpose of life right after all.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Momma its Vienna and I don't know how but I was trying to follow a blog and it brougt the folower thing up as you so I changed the name and now I think It changed your name at least on my blog and so I think u are folowing my friends blog so.... I explain it better tonight

    OPPS SORRY

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  2. Aren't kids brilliant! I have a hard time with my 3 yr old wanting to know EVERYTHING. And if I don't know, it requires research.. and usually lots of it!

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Sorry about the word verification, I hate it too, but spam has gotten bad lately.