Wonderment

I've been reading Ravi Zacharias' "Recapture the Wonder" for the past couple of days. I know I'm only on the second chapter, but I just had a thought about what I've read so far.

He mentions that wonder is interchangeable with innocence, and specifically describes the wonder that all children are born with. You know that wonder - its what makes a nine-month-old baby stand in front of a window forever, just looking at nothing. Its what makes a four-year-old jump up and down at the mere thought of snow. This is the reason tiny babies become fascinated by their own hands. Its the thing that makes everything new and interesting to kids.

Can you imagine adults feeling the way kids do about anything? We wouldn't be able to get dressed in the morning without admiring our hands and feet for 10 minutes, snapping the elastic on our undergarments for 20 minutes and laughing each time, and teasing our hair with the hairbrush for another 10.

Anyway, if all kids are born with this wonder, do we as parents destroy it in part every time we say "hurry up!" or "clean this mess right now!"? Kids learn through that wonder - why do moms feel the need to burst those bubbles of amazement?

I am definitely not a patient person, and I hate to see a messy room. But my kids are fascinated with things like soap bubbles on the bathroom floor, squishy pudding on the kitchen table, and compacted snow on the carpet. Every time I yell at them, clean their mess, and say "don't do that again!" am I chipping away at their wonder?

Am I killing my kid's innocence?