Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend who was relaying a conversation with their six year old to me. Seems during a ride in the car someone was driving in a manner that caused Dad to say, "That person is driving like an idiot!". From the back seat, a little voice piped up and said, "Well Daddy, maybe he IS an idiot!"
I can clearly remember a similar situation when I was a kid. My dad had taken my brothers to a basketball game. (This was back when smoking in public didn't have all of the restrictions and people pretty much smoked wherever they liked.) My brother, who was likely about 6 (although I don't remember his exact age) saw a large woman smoking a cigarette and said, "You know you're going to die!" If I remember correctly he also tried to engage her in conversation about "why she was so fat". You just have to know that my dad wanted to crawl under the bleachers or head for the nearest exit! Sometimes our kids can put us in such embarrassing situations. You gotta love their honesty!
Being a kid can have such freedom! Kids don't have a filter between their thoughts and their mouths. Whatever they think, they usually will say. Somewhere along the way they get that filter installed and realize that sometimes it's better to not say whatever they are thinking.
Do you ever wish that you could just say whatever you and everyone around is thinking? Sometimes there is this big elephant in the room and everyone wants to point it out but no one dares. I have been in many conversations where speaking what I really thought would have been so easy! The only problem with doing so is that it likely would leave me with few people willing to carry on a conversation with me!
Figuring out how to speak the truth in love is the key. I think we often will miss opportunities to speak truth into someone's life or into a particular situation because we can't figure out how to deliver what we have to say in such a way that the receiver will accept it well. Kids can just blurt out whatever they think and everyone will chalk it up to being a child. Have an adult do the same and people get downright offended.
I'm still trying to figure out when it's right to speak the truth in love and when it's just better to keep my mouth shut. Most times I think I probably fail miserably at this.
I think I'd rather be six!
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