No bubble wrap for me

            "You can't do that!"  "It's not safe!"  As I read this comment, I must confess, I laughed.  They were referring to allowing a child to have a monkey bar set up in a hallway of the house.  When I got done laughing, I had to think about when it became wrong to allow children the joy of taking a risk.  After all, life is filled with uncertainties. That's part of what makes life exciting.  Fun.  I work with fryers every day.  They are dangerous!  Trust me. Driving a car is risky.  Do you have any idea how many lunatics there are with driver's licenses?  I do.   But no one stops driving.  Realistically, I can't protect my children one hundred percent of the time.  When I was growing up, I played outside, explored the woods, walked on beams in a barn all unsupervised.  Guess what? I lived to tell about it.  We had boundaries, like no playing in the road,  tell people where you are going.  But . . . We were allowed to climb trees, or camp out in the backyard on our own.  Gasp!!!

           I wonder if we do our children a disservice when we restrict all of their play to things that are safe.  Afterall, is it not our goal to raise independent thinkers and leaders?  But how will they learn to conquer fear if we teach them to be safe all of the time? 

         What we learn from the natural realm often carries over to the spiritual realm.  So . . . If we want our children to have faith we need to encourage the times where they take a risk.  Ultimately, we have no idea of the tasks God has for them.  When God gave Joshua battle plans for Jericho, they included marching around a city.  How safe is that?  I can't think of one General that would choose that as the plan of attack.  And what about Noah building an ark for a flood when it's never rained.  That's gutsy. 

        One thing is for sure, in the natural and the spiritual world, God didn't plan for us to live in a bubble where everything is safe.   He created us for faithful living in a world that is not safe, and if we are going to follow Him, there are going to be risks.  I want to live an exciting life full of taking chances, and I hope I raised my children to be unafraid to take chances.  Yes, they may fall but they may not,  and I'll be there cheering for them when they take bold steps of faith.