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Kids teach us so much. They start out with no prejudices, no pre-conceived notions, and no guile. A thought pops into their head and they blurt it out, not realizing the potential for embarrassment that keeps so man of us adults quiet. They are spontaneous, trusting, open, and adorable. They are what we should be. Unfortunately, as life happens, we learn to put a damper on all the above characteristics. Maybe that's why the Bible tells us to "become as little children". In an effort to conform to the expectations of society, we put boundaries around is and begin to lose all that joyous openness and spontaneity we were born with. The following are some things we can learn from kids.

Meet life with spontaneity.
Children don't take time to plan things out, they just have a thought pop into their heads and they're off. They don't realize that they should plan for eventualities. They just know they had an idea that sounds like fun and they explore it. They don't need to plan because they adjust as they go, and that brings us to our next lesson.

Meet life with flexibility.
Children are incredibly flexible. Rather than holding grudges when life takes a different turn, they go with the flow. They move on, exploring the joy and/or sadness of the new event fully without constantly looking back to how things used to be. They may spend a couple minutes whining, but they get over it quickly and move on. They follow each event, fully engaged, without wasting time on "what ifs" and the "unfairness" of life. Yes, sometimes events can knock a child off his or her feet for a while, but they are able to adapt fairly quickly and move on, especially the younger they are. Before they have learned the restrictions of adulthood, they bend with the wind which keeps them from breaking.

Meet life with wonder.
Children find the world absolutely fascinating. A dandelion is a flower, not the weed we adults try to eradicate. It is so beautiful in their eyes that they can gaze at it for hours and talk about it even longer. They gather them to share with their mothers; they have no concept that the rose or iris is different from the dandelion. To them a flower is a flower.

Meet life's diversities as an opportunity to explore.
Just as they see the flowers and weeds as the same, children tend to see all people as just people. It's not that they don't notice things like skin color, they just look at that as another interesting fact about someone and accept it as if it means nothing: to them it doesn't.

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