I've been teaching the girls in the Jr. High from a series called, "The Gospel in Disney". Its been quite fun with lessons that are very interesting & something to learn from legendary movies - the good early stuff like "Sleeping Beauty" "101 Dalmatians" "Cinderella" "Snow White" "Dumbo" & "Peter Pan" just to name a few. At the end of each lesson, I have some questions that the girls can pull out of a bag & then we discuss. Each question goes with one of the movies we've talked about. The other day, someone got the question, "If you could, would you choose not to grow up?". As usual, it got us on a roll of some interesting talking. The girls all instantly said they did want to grow up! I asked them what they thought the perfect age was - & it was almost unanimous - 18 years old was the age they thought would be perfect to stay at forever!
I thought it was so interesting to see what these young girls between the ages of 11-13 thought was the perfect age. The idea of 18 means they will have a drivers license & will be considered an "adult" at that magical number - that's all that they can see as the perfect life.
Funny, isn't it? How being an "adult", you can see so much more than they can see? To know that at 18, you still don't know that much in life - have the life experiences that make you grow & learn things that only age can bring. For me, a great age to stay at would be around 23. But it made me think - what would others say would be their perfect age? Would an older person in their 70's think the perfect age is in their 40's? It would be interesting to see. And maybe its what year someone had that perfect time of life - that's the year they would like to go back to. These kids just wanted to be older though - how many of us want to go back?
Does God look at us & laugh when we think we want to be older? Or younger? He knows the whole story, the ending anyways - does He look at us & think, "Oh, wait until you're here with me - that will be the happiest time you'll ever have - not an earthly age" - we dont think about that though, do we?
For me - I just know that no matter my age - I'm always going to be young at heart - that's what I love being with these girls - they keep me that way!
What's scary is to think about all that I "thought" I knew as a teenager. Whoa! It kind of makes me wonder about all that I "think" I know right now :)
ReplyDeleteVery very interesting. Food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI must be strange. . .cuz I feel like I'm at a perfect age right now, and it's pretty close to what I thought would be perfect as a teen.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up... hmmm... don't plan on doing it any time soon. The perfect age? Physically... or mentally???? There is a difference you know... right now... my body is just about 68 and my mind is right around 28, so I guess being 48 isn't too bad... I'm stuck in the middle!!!!
ReplyDeleteHow appropriate for you to teach lesson based on Disney! You are in your sweet spot now! I think I grew up way too soon. I never really wanted to be older, and I'm still waiting for the perfect age.
ReplyDeleteI've LOVED doing this series. I'm getting pretty bummed its almost over. Now if I could only find a PRINCESS series!
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