“At eight years old…I went to a ‘coloured’ water fountain, because I wanted to see what coloured water looks like.” – something I overheard on CNN as a Caucasian man explained his childhood revelation of racism’s existence.
Day 269 – The innocence of childhood…
I was asked to submit my learning/research about children’s development for our Little Arrows children’s ministry at church:
For me, childhood innocence has been a very significant lesson within the Bible and life itself.
It’s something that has special relevance to our Little Arrows being the age that they are.
When people have asked me:
“What is your happiest moment in life so far?”
I’ve been honest and said: “it was in childhood at around 6 years old;” the embodiment of that happiness is actually captured in a home-video – Christmas 1990 attached here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP9YyTpnZg0.
I do recognise that this answer of childhood as opposed to a more recent memory in adulthood, has a biased element.
This is because in childhood there is a clear essence of purity, innocence, joy, and peace that one struggles to find in adulthood.
In childhood, we are in most ways exactly as Jesus would like us to be in adulthood – teachable, submissive, malleable, quickly forgetful of people’s wrongs, recognising of authority, and possessing of a very clear (black and white) sense of right and wrong.
But throughout these years of childhood, we quickly learn how to lie, envy, steal, hurt, and betray others due to our inherent sin nature and the sin around us in the world.
In teenage years and adulthood, we learn how to make ‘truth’ ours via moral relativity. This allows our minds to deceive ourselves into justification and vindication of actions that would otherwise be considered ‘wrong.’
In relation to our Little Arrows, I believe it’s imperative to nurture this innocence and purity, because it’s in this time that we’re planting seeds that will last them a lifetime.
Similar to a bad crop that struggles for years to provide good produce, if we plant the wrong seeds, our children can grow up dealing with strongholds that last an entire lifetime.
Much like my previous posting about memories, the importance of this time in our Little Arrows’ lives is massively significant; a time where their minds are in a state that we arguably can never get back again. It can be the foundation of a future strong faith-life.
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