Be like children......

Isn't life complicated??? Sometimes my brain is so full of STUFF that I think my head is going to pop off my neck. Sometimes it feels like there's so much going on around me that my eyes are just spinning in their sockets. Remember when we were kids and we would tell our parents how much we couldn't wait to grow up...and they would tell us to just enjoy childhood, that being a grown-up wasn't as fun as it looked to kids??? Being a kid wasn't always what it's cracked up to be either, some of us had childhoods we have no desire to go back and relive. BUT I'm sure we all crave the simplicity that goes along with childhood.

Another thing about childhood back in the day, or the teen years for that matter, is that everything then seemed so black and white, and that life should be fair. Unfortunately for our kids that's not necessarily the the way it is anymore. Truth is not absolute... and fairness, HA! Now it's all about competition and winning no matter what. But our black and white, sometimes fair, world was based on basic truths we learned early on about how to conduct ourselves in life, and those truths were usually reinforced when we went to school, or to our friend's house. I can't help but wonder what the world would be like today if we, as adults, held on to the basics we learned as kids. Would the world be in the mess it's in, would the economy be in a shambles???

A dozen or so years ago, there was a very popular book by Robert Fulghum, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." In the book Fulghum celebrates the simplicity and innocence that comes from childhood and how to see it in your adult life. He discusses some of the basic truths we learn as children. Fulghum was in ministry at one time, but the book gets a little new age now and again. However, the basic concept is biblical: God tells us to be like children too. He says we must be like children to in order to enter the His Kingdom.

My favorite part of the book is a list of things we learned in kindergarten, hence the name of the book. I took his list and found scripture God has given us to teach us those same things. The bold text is Fulghum's, the italics are God's, non- bold, non italics are mine.

“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

“ All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” Acts 2:44-45 *

Play fair.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31

Don’t hit people.

“But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matt 5:39

“When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ’If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone…” John 8:7

Put things back where you found them.

“The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously…”

Psalm 37:21

Clean up your own mess.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matt 7:4-5

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

“You shall not steal.

You shall not covet your neighbors house…” Exodus 20:15, 17

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37

Wash your hands before you eat.

“The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.” Psalm 18:20

Flush.

Okay. This one just proves that the Bible has guidance for every situation!

“Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.” Deut 23:12-13

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

This one is a stretch- but humor me!

“He looked around, there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals…He ate and drank…Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights…” 1 Kings 19:6,8

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 1 Peter 2:2-3

Live a balanced life- learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things.” Phil 4:8

“He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” Eph 4:28

Take a nap every afternoon.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matt 11:28-29

When you go into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” 1 Peter 5:8-9

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.

“ Then God said ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so.” Genesis 1:11

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup- they all die. So do we.

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:19

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Matt 24:35

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

And remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned- the biggest word of all- LOOK.

“Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: My God will hear me.” Micah 7:7 KJV

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your 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 three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it’s still true, no matter how old you are- when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”1

*All scriptures from the NIV of the Bible except where noted.

1. Robert Fulghum, All I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten (New York: Villard Books, 1990) pages 6, 7, & 8.

I hope you enjoyed my take on Fulghum's list. There is a lot of opportunity for joy in that list! Not just because doing those things can make us happy. But because in doing many of those things we experience the joy that is the fruit of the Spirit that lives in us when we have been born of the water and the Spirit, and once again become like children!

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 18:3