Live A Life Of Design

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. --Stacia Tauscher

We can learn much from our children. They delight in even the most ordinary things, they find ways to play with whatever they have. Whether it is a discarded box, toilet roll or somebody’s shoe….even car keys possess a little mystery and warrant a thorough inspection by the Toddler Police! Everything inevitably finds its way into the mouth; every sense is used to ‘check this thing out’.

My children at various times have conducted elaborate games with seed pods, the little dark almost tear drop shaped ones. It seems that whenever I am washing inevitably I will have to take these and a variety of other unexpected little presents out of pockets. Leaves of all shapes and sizes have been boats or stickers or baby blankets or artwork. The glittering whirlwind of dust particles that swirl around and through streaming sunlight has been glitter falling from fairies wings or simply viewed as something very magical to behold. Pegs have been soldiers, paddle pop sticks have been gloriously gowned princesses and my sarongs have been veils, painting aprons, turbans, baby slings, capes and even a running river! Radio and Television advertising jingles are great compositions worthy of singing at the top of your lungs or dancing and twirling to. I heard recently that adults laugh on average- 15 times a day; whereas children laugh on average- 400 times a day!

Who would you rather be like?

When is it exactly that a box becomes-just a box?

A jingle something to mute and toilet rolls, rubbish?

I think it’s when we start taking things for granted, when we learn to shut down the ‘think centre’ of the neck-top computer. When we have ‘system error’ and cannot log-on. In the same way that our computers pick up viruses or bugs from associating with the Internet and other people’s computers, we allow things to get us down, kow-tow to other people’s demands, start looking for all the problems and bad things in our life, start comparing ourselves to the flash new model on the market and slowly but surely become bogged down in rut Ville!

This is not the life you were intended to live! You are allowed to have joy in your life; you can see the fun in simple things again…. We get caught up in making a living rather than designing a life! Live a life of design! Not one of resign….. I heard a very wealthy man say once…

“All those little things that get to you are like tiny pinpricks that eventually let the air out of your life.”

Why not let the child within you out to play, laugh more, and seek out some fun in the everyday? Lighten up! Bring a joke to the Dining table once a week. Learn from Jesus, he wasn’t driven by other people’s demands. In Matthew 11:30, he says “Keep Company with me and you will learn to live freely and lightly”.