Rings and things and buttons and bows

I was driving down the street when I got a whiff of the air and immediately thought, "Rain!" Had it been my girl friend, she would have thought, "Worms!"  and the only difference is the way we interpreted that smell. When she was small, her parents told her it was worms.  Mine told me it was rain.

Both of these are wonderful, but that is just one example of how important our childhood is. It teaches us things we retain for the rest of our lives. Some of these things are merely up for interpretation. Others become the standard by which we judge and base much more important things.

It is one of the reasons I worry when little girls are dressed up and sent out into the world to be judged the prettiest, or turned into little cheerleaders for the boy's football teams before they are even old enough to understand anything more than this gets them tons of approval from their immediate world. There isn't anything wrong with being pretty or being a cheerleader, but girls need to know they can do things themselves that make people cheer for them because they are strong and confident and beautiful just the way God made them -- without  those, "Rings and things and buttons and bows."

And I worry about both little boys and girls when I hear relatives at their six year old birthday party ask if they have a boy friend, or girl friend. Do we really want children paired off in elementary school, and maybe mothers and fathers before they're out of high school?

I'd be so much more comfortable if little girls and boys were playing soccer, basketball, and baseball, and becoming Young Authors, or Junior Zookeepers. I want to ask, "Who's going to put something in the science fair?" Or, maybe, "Did you decide to play a musical instrument?"

Let's get away from sleeping beauties who need a prince to wake them up, or kings of the mountain who win because of stepping on all the others on the way to the top.

Learning to get along with others, pull your own weight, and be a team player makes for happier adults.

It's time to celebrate people instead of nostalgia.