Youthful Happiness

Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. ~ Ecclesiastes 11:9

Be children while you are children and be adults when you are adults! Let this truth resound with the youth of today and be a friendly reminder to teenagers and young adults alike that one day you will account for everything. More importantly for me today, this also serves as a remainder that I should let my innocent children run and play without stifling their joy. I was just telling a friend of mine that I am trying to become more of a "yes" mom and more spontaneous with them while they are young. Happiness for children can be as simple as being allowed to play in the snow for an extra 10 minutes, playing another round of Candy Land, or taking 20 minutes out of my busy day to play Rescue Action Heroes with them. My children don't need much to make them happy and I am glad of that, but I also know that I can often stifle their happiness when I feel like their choice of activity is inconvenient for me. That's the behavior of mine I want to stop. They are going to be pushed, molded and taught how to stifle their child like happiness and joy to fit into a routine schedule by this worldly society sooner than not and I need to let them have their childhood joy now. I also pray that I am teaching them how to have a joyous life inside the confines of God's law so that when those worldly thoughts come into their heads that they think will give them happiness they will remember that they will have to account for those to God also. We will account for the happiness too...so let's make sure it's clean, innocent and youthful happiness. ~