These past weeks have been filled with concerns and worries. These concerns and worries don’t seem to touch our children at all. Yet they weigh heavily on my hearts and minds. Of course, this is how it should be. This is exactly what the Church means when it teaches that the innocence of children must be protected (most people see the term “innocence” in a purely sexual context — this is not the way the Church defines the term). Children are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually unable to handle the stress of the adult world in a Fallen world. By protecting them from this stress, we give them a chance to mature so that they are able to handle it by the time they are old enough to start taking on the responsibility.

Of course, as I watch their carefree play, I began to get a little jealous. Why can’t I be that carefree? Then it struck me that this is exactly the desire expressed in humanistic psychological philosophies. Philosophies such as Transactional Analysis Theory have made us believe that a healthy adults is able to recapture the carefreeness of childhood, and that being weighed down by adult concerns is a sign of psychological dysfunction. The more I thought about this the more ridiculous I felt about being jealous of my children. Humanistic psychology has proven to be untenable. It just doesn’t work. When adults try to be carefree in a Fallen world, we tend to become careless instead. When we try to reclaim our childhood we just end up hiding from reality.

Indeed, God’s design is for human beings to grow into what He has planned for us to become. Childhood is a preparation for adulthood — earthly life is a preparation for eternal life. All the while we are meant to grow in our capacity to love. So, what is in this desire to recapture our childhood that the gloomy adult world may be missing? What does God want to develop us into as adults that is reflected in the carefree play of childhood? Certainly God’s plan stands in opposition to the two extremes:

Humanism that would have us stick our heads in the sand and ignore evil, embracing a carefree childish attitude that ignores our responsibilities as adults

“Realism” that sees only the evils in the world and believes that all joy is nothing more than wishful thinking

The Christian is called to a balance. We must face the realities of this world, including the sinfulness and the evil that is was brought about by original sin. However, we face these evils knowing that good wins in the end. We faced them with joy, hope, and love. In that sense we can recapture some of the carefree joy of childhood. If we are not living in joy, hope, and love, we are missing out on what God has planned for our adulthood lives.

Joy is more than happiness. It is a deep-seated satisfaction that our lives have significance and meaning. The difference between the innocence of childhood and the joy of adulthood is that the innocence of childhood exists in oblivion to the evil around us, while the joy that occurs in adulthood often exists despite needing to face that evil.

Joy is the fruit of hope. Hope is trust in God. We trust that He will remain true to His promises to make all things right in the end — to bring about His Kingdom. We have hope in His power to bring good out of evil.

Love is the very life of God — the power to freely give ourselves as gifts to others for the sake of their good. When we love others, we are willing to face the evil that comes our way, and even to sacrifice good things that we may have coming to us for their sake. Love is strengthened by hope, and love is what makes our lives significant and meaningful, bringing us joy.

These are three of the elements that the innocence of childhood prepare us for and grow into. In the end, joy, hope and love are better than carefree innocence. If we are not living these three fruits of grace and maturity in our adult lives, we are missing out on what God has planned for us.

Like I said, it’s amazing what thoughts come to me as I mow the lawn.

Related Links:

• Do you know of good links related to this post? Let me know by leaving a comment!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Phil 4:8).

Scripture is filled with warnings about guarding your senses in order to guard your mind and heart against evil. While Christians are often criticized for being “isolationist” and “protectionist,” I know in my own life that the areas that I failed to protect myself have become my largest areas of struggle for holiness as an adult.

It is true that a true attitude of isolationism and protectionism does exist within some Christian circles, and that this is not a healthy and true understanding of Scripture. Creation and culture are good things that are sometimes influenced by evil. To create a separate “Christian culture” that parallels but does not intersect human culture is not what Christ wants for us. Yes, he tells us not to be transformed by the culture, but to let our minds be transformed by the Holy Spirit, but he calls us to then go into the world and transform it.

Furthermore, natural law tells us that human culture is a necessary part of human life. To isolate ourselves from culture not only robs us of the chance to bring the Gospel into the world, it robs us of true human life.

We need to find the balance that allows us to find what is True, Good and Beautiful within human life while we interact with culture, but also to avoid what is false, evil and depraved. We need to make the good things in culture even better by revealing the supernatural as well as the natural source of their goodness. We also need to try to heal areas of our culture that have been given over to evil and depravity.

On the other hand, we cannot give ourselves to the culture to be transformed by it (as has sadly happened to many in the Catholic Church and in many Protestant communities as well). Listening to music or watching movies that glorify in using people as objects of gratification, or enacting violence against others, or in other evil acts only draws us into the lure of sin. Christians begin to wonder if they are really missing out on something (“You certainly will not die. No, God knows that when you eat of this fruit you will be like gods who know good and evil.”).

It is always interesting to me when secularists claim that certain ideas that are found in Sacred Scripture or Sacred Tradition are just “religious opinions,” only to have science “discover” the same ideas eventually. Science plays catch-up with revealed Truth all the time. To me, that’s one of the greatest proofs of the truth of our faith.

We really should not be surprised that immersing ourselves in the message that evil is good would eventually turn our minds and hearts toward evil.

Related Links:

• Do you know of good links related to this post? Let me know by leaving a comment!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Sure, it might seem that the young man who sits at home in his bedroom all day refusing to hold a traditional job appears to be doing nothing, but when he eventually leaves the house, he might become one of the world’s greatest writers, as was the case with Oscar Wilde.

Or, he (and eventually she) might be enforcing his political beliefs against the traditional work system . . .

Tom Lutz’s book is about the way Americans view those who don’t work, whether by choice or condition, and how many people who were viewed lazy by American standards were actually exercising great minds but were marching to the beat of a different drummer.

The book tells the story of Benjamin Franklin, whom John Adams considered one of the laziest human beings he had ever known. It also tells the story of Oscar Wilde, who lived a lifestyle of the idle rich but produced some great intellectual works, and of Karl Marx, who protested the traditional work system by refusing to work but who was a workaholic in his own right.

Our American work ethic, busy all-the-time culture certainly needs to revisit its views of true recreation and leisure. This book may help us do so.

However, the conclusions drawn by the reviewer are predictably overboard.

And maybe, just maybe, parents, after reading this book, will begin look (sic) at their child as more than a representative of a lazy generation, but more as a person trying to figure out his or her place in the world. At least, after they take a nap.

This creative twist of an ending revisits the idea in the introduction of “children sitting on the couch on a beautiful day, playing video games, content with lackluster grades.”

Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us that virtue is most often a middle way between extremes. Certainly, the workaholic attitude our country has adopted is not healthy and does not lead to much happiness. It also damages family life, marriage and personal sanity. On the other hand, laziness and idle use of time is not the road to happiness either. The idle rich often get themselves into trouble out of boredom, or become engaged in alcohol or drug abuse to fill the emptiness of an unfulfilling life. As a teacher, the answer I most often got when I asked students who their summer vacation was is a shrug accompanied with, “Kinda boring.”

The virtue of industriousness is a balance between these two extremes. Benjamin Franklin is actually an excellent example of this virtue. John Adams considered him lazy only against his New England work ethic, which is reflected in our modern mantra “time is money.” However, Franklin’s apparent idle time was taken up with learning, thinking, writing, experimenting and exercising his creativity. This “idle” time made his productive time even more productive since his productive time implemented ideas generated during his “idle” time.

Are children sitting on the couch playing video games, content with lackluster grades engaged in a similar use of time? Don’t be too quick to say no. Video games can stimulate creativity to some degree (some of them draw the imagination into a story line, for example). However, they can also be addictive and truly idle time. Formation of the virtue of industriousness would demand the limited use of video games, television and other passive entertainment. The key is to balance leisure time with greater doses of recreational reading, informal learning, thinking, writing, experimenting, exercising creativity, physical exercise and other active forms of recreation.

Children often need adults to stimulate this kind of activity. I sure did. My mother kicked me out of the house on a regular basis because I was doing nothing but watching TV. I thank her for it, because the time I spent outside was usually truly recreational. I engaged in creative play (with others or with myself), explored, daydreamed, got physical exercise, and came to appreciate nature.

We need to avoid the trap of thinking that we and our children are “human doings” instead of “human beings.” However, we must also avoid the trap that says we should leave our children alone to follow their own path. Children need adult guidance to find the balance of virtue. But adults need to make sure they have this balance in mind – and in practice – themselves so they can pass it on to their children.

Work Cited

Farguheson, Ivy. “History Shows Slackers Not New.” Marshfield News Herald. 21 September 2008. 11A.

Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America Written by: Lutz, Tom – Published by: Farrar Straus Giroux – Published on: 2007-05-01

Leisure: The Basis of Culture Written by: Pieper, Josef – Published by: St. Augustine’s Press – Published on: 1998-10-01

Related Links:

• Do you know of good links related to this post? Let me know by leaving a comment!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.