“1,2,3…Ready or Not Here I Come!”

Have we all heard our children declare a recent discovery?

It usually sounds something like, “Mama, did you know that…”?

This is absolutely a common phrase around our house and it typically leads down the road of numerous explanations and at times unfounded facts. When I get a chance to interject, my follow up question is often a form of “where did you hear that?’ Which is countered with a swift, “A friend told me, or I read it on the internet.”  These are the responses that make me the most hesitant to believe the ‘facts’ they are generously sharing with me, but I listen and begin with questions surrounding this newfound information.

“Does this sound logical?”

“What do you think about this?”

“Is this a reliable source? Have they misinformed you before?”

You see, I don’t want our children to believe everything that they are shown or told. I want them to know how to seek out the answers to their questions and doubts. In all honesty some of these ‘facts’ are so nonsensical that I am embarrassed they even consider them. It appears all ideas are possibilities and it is here that concepts begin to get disorientating for our kids and for us too if we are honest.

Truth has been hiding behind comfort, behind agendas, and behind intellectual laziness for a long time and our world is sinking into it like I do into my recliner at the end of a long day. It is comfortable and easier to stay put and the longer we stay the harder it is to see that where we are is not right. Contentment has become our crutch and it leads to disengagement. We stop seeking after the support that will hold us up, the truth.

We need to stand up and begin by questioning what we are being told. Am I the only one weary, living day to day with children who are confused about what truth is? Something needs to change.

So, no matter how high it feels we may have to count or how long we must search, the truth is out there, hiding or disguised, waiting to be discovered, waiting to set us free.