Today my kids dressed up like Dr. Seuss characters. My daughter is a "wocket in your pocket" and my son is "pup". Now I believe that this dress up contest is a pretty good fit for my kids considering the kind of Dr. Seuss-like behavior I have seem from them lately. For instance, my son decided that he wanted to make an enormous slingshot just like the one he saw on a cartoon. Oh my! I walked into MY bedroom only to find that my son had taken my exercise band, tied the ends to my weights, and dropped one weight behind my dresser and one behind the foot board of my bed. This in turn made a great slingshot to launch a TENNIS BALL across my room!!! Yes, his idea did technically work but that doesn't mean it was a good idea. Don't tell me that isn't something the cat in the hat wouldn't have done. Someday he may just take over the world. And believe me, I know that my daughter wasn't just "innocently" standing by- I got her number now.
OK, I may not be overly enthusiastic with my kid's engineering skills to launch solid objects around a room, but I am proud of something else. My daughter was very excited about dressing up like a Dr. Seuss character today. I warned her that she is now in third grade and most of the kids were not going to dress up this year. She decided that she didn't care if other people weren't doing it- she wanted to do it anyway. Wow! A wave a relief rolled over me when I realized how much she has grown up. I was so excited that she wanted to stand on her own that I even paid $10.00 for that orange wig. (Remember I am Dutch, so $10.00 is a lot of money for me!) My daughter said that she wanted to do something fun, even if other students weren't going to participate.
That made me think. There are so many things in this world that God has made for us to ENJOY. I'm getting on my soap box again, but God really does want us to be happy. Sometimes it may take a little courage to stand up for what we believe in, but it will be worth it. Perhaps, it may mean saying no to the play date so you can have some family time. Maybe, you may need to choose a corny movie instead of one that will fill your mind with things God doesn't want us to think about. It could be something as simple as choosing not to spend money you don't need to in order to have the freedom to live without money worries later on. The truth we need to remember is that God makes suggestions for how we live in order to guide us to lasting happiness. It may take courage to make the choice which causes us to stand out, but it will be worth the enjoyment we will get from it later. Go ahead, get crazy, read a Dr. Seuss book today and have a laugh on me.
