I want to build a world for my kids that is far less scary than the version the news likes to tell us. I want their days to be made up of blanket forts and laughing until their belly hurts and holiday baskets and practicing new tricks. I want them to wake up every day hopeful and excited for what today might bring. 

I want to stop focusing on the fear and politics and hatred that permeates and infiltrates our conversations. I want to show them a world of Mother Teresas and MLKJs and Mister Rogers. I want them to know they can be those people themselves. That kindness exists but we have to be willing to share it first. That there is enough love to wrap the world over a hundred times if we’d only learn to give it away more freely. 

I don’t want my kids to wake up one day and feel cheated by life. Like we were just playing dress up all this time but the real production has no happy endings. I want them to realize that joy and love and hope are not always freely given, but they are choices that we choose to cultivate today so that tomorrow can be more beautiful. That we don’t have to sugarcoat or gloss over the hard stuff or the things in our history that brought us to where we are now—but that there is celebration in the progress. And there’s something to be said for recognizing our world’s many imperfections in hopes of paving and new and better path that we can all walk on one day.

There is enough grimness and anxiety to keep our prescriptions filled and minds in constant turmoil. What we need more of is the audacity to hope. The courage to love fiercely without first stopping to assess who is deserving. I want my boys to walk with their heads up and their hearts open to a life that will undoubtedly slap them around sometimes, but will give them some of the most wonderful gifts, as well. 

What if we stopped living our lives paralyzed by what could go wrong and instead began planting seeds of beauty for others to discover in our wake?

I want to collect memories like seashells and take up all my vacation days exploring a world that is begging to be discovered. I want to be the first to say I’m sorry when I get it wrong. I want to say I love you until they are sick of hearing it so they never have to wonder. And if given the choice between sitting on the sidelines or getting absolutely filthy on the field, I want them to come home covered with dirt and war stories. Even if it means another bath or another mess to clean up. 

Lately, whenever I ask my four year old what his favorite animal is, he responds with something along the lines of “lions because I’m so brave of lions.”

What if we saw the world through that same lens? What if we didn’t tiptoe around the things that scared us and instead committed to diving deeper and opening our minds up to how incredibly wonderful and diverse God’s creation is? Maybe things aren’t as terrible as we think they are. Maybe they are, but how on earth is walking through life in fear and dread going to make it any better?

What if we stopped living our lives paralyzed by what could go wrong and instead began planting seeds of beauty for others to discover in our wake? I find that the world is far less scary when I’m too busy crawling through blanket forts and pretend fishing on a hammock boat to read the headlines anyway.