I don’t know about you, but growing up, my entire summer was considered a vacation. A vacation from the work of going to school😉. During this time I spent my days reading books like these:
…and dreaming of what I was going to be when I grew up. I first wanted to be a teacher, then changed it to being a secretary. I actually took shorthand and typing classes in High School to prepare for a secretarial job. I ended up in nursing. Note the Cherry Ames book.
From those books I learned about history, honesty, hard work, being kind, doing the right thing even when it’s hard.
When I wasn’t reading, I was outside swinging on a tree swing. Those are the best. When the swing is placed on the highest limb you can find, it gives a longer rope to go really high. The wide board that my dad grooved out to fit the ropes was extra wide and very comfortable. Another place to let my imagination soar as I made it my goal to let my bare feet touch the leaves on the branch beside the one the rope swing was attached to.
When I wasn’t swinging I was checking out what my dad was growing in our garden and sometimes digging in the dirt.
And then I was riding my bicycle, or roller skating on our cemented basement floor. When I was twelve or so, I had a friend whose mother would bring her bike to our house (we lived about two blocks from town) and we would ride all over the town together. We especially liked riding over to the drug store and getting a chocolate nut sundae or cherry smash (remember those?).
The world has gone crazy. These wholesome days for children are long gone. Is this the end of the world as we know it? Many say the rapture is very near to coming.
We need a reset.
But individually, could we have a reset? In your own little corner of the world, could you provide the positive and wholesome summer days for your children and grandchildren that you may have experienced growing up? Maybe slow down and actually enjoy something without speeding through the experience? Could we all just let them be children?
I think we should try. The world has become an evil place, but God is good. Focusing on God and His goodness and what He meant for us to have at the beginning in the Garden of Eden brings a breath of refreshing, cool, air.
Give your young girls a Little House on the Prairie book to read and your young boys, Farmer Boy. Give both a Boxcar Children book and let them solve a mystery or dream of making a home in a boxcar.
Even as the world changes for the worse, we still have the dreams and hopes based on the reset we will get in Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom when the earth is finally redeemed. The world will be taken back to what it was before all this sin and evil entered. It will be as God intended it to be from the beginning. It will be safe and children will once again play with abandon. (See Isaiah 11:8)
(See Isaiah 2:2-4, Isaiah 65:25, Zechariah 14:16, Zechariah 8:3, Revelation 5:10, Amos 9:11-15, Daniel 7:27, Daniel 7:13-14, Zechariah 14:8)
“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
What are some fun things you enjoyed in the summer as a child?
Jane,
If only.
You are so right, the world has gone stark raving mad!! My grands have never experienced a summer like the ones I had. They know things and have been exposed to things that would have my Granny pulling her hair out. Alas, things such as your suggestions are few and far between for many kids these days.
But God is still in control and we’ve read the end of the Book! There is always hope.
Thank you for this. Prayers being lifted for better days.
Debbie,
Yes, my grandmother would be pulling her hair out right now, too. And thank goodness God is still in control or we would never make it. I’ll pray with you for better days. And if not better days here on earth, the wonderful days of heaven we have to look forward to:)
I used to love to play outside for hours, read, swim, or watch I Love Lucy when it got too hot outside. We have purposely created a slow lifestyle for our kids, but they’ve still been exposed to many things through friends at church and in public that were out of my control. I do think we can try our best to give them an innocent and carefree childhood for as long as we can and pray they’re protected from the rest of the broken world.
Allison,
You are doing a great job! Many parents just accept the world as it is and don’t even try. I think having the innocent and carefree childhoods helps store up strength and good thoughts for later life when they finally recognize how bad things are. They can think back on better days and hope for a better future when the earth is redeemed in the millennium.