Letters to Holden and Nolan…

little men, 

i’m thinking about you guys this morning…probably because i get to watch you this afternoon while your mommy tutors some kids.  it’s always a fun afternoon when i get to see you.

this won’t make much sense to you now, but it sure will somewhere down the line…

right now, there is simply “right” and “wrong” for you.  you don’t know anything about this thing we call the gray area.  it’s a place adults like to visit all the time.

your mommy and daddy have worked really hard to protect you.  they make rules for you to live by.  they put up fences and barriers and they tell you exactly where you can go and the things you need to stay away from.  it’s for your own good…and the good of others.

but as you get older, you’ll want to push those boundaries.  trust me.  you will.  you will think you know better.  you’ll try to convince yourself that the rules you can make for yourself are better than the ones you are learning to live by right now.  adults do this all the time!

way back in the beginning, when god created the earth and made adam and eve, he put up boundaries for them.  he made their world safe for them to enjoy.  he told them where they could go and the things they needed to stay away from for their own good.  but they didn’t listen.  they chose to wander into the gray area.

they became convinced that “wrong” was really “okay”…and “no” was actually “mmmm…maybe”.   they came to believe they were smarter than god.  they thought their own decisions and their own ideas were going to work out better than the simple lessons they were taught in the beginning.

and adults do this all the time.

so, my little friends, beware of the gray area.  stay close to the lessons you learn right now.  right and wrong don’t change just because you get older.  wrong doesn’t become right,  just because it feels better or gives you something you want.

every day for the rest of your lives,  you will be tempted to wander into unsafe places…unsafe for your reputations or your important relationships or even your physical well-being.  it may look really fun.  it may even appear to be “right”.  but it will be deadly.

when it comes to gray areas,  don’t be like adults.

stay like the trusting children you are.

grow wise,  grasshoppers.

papi

#reputation #rules #temptation #trust