Food for Thought - #4

The truth hurts sometimes. There have been numerous times in my life where I've been confronted with the truth or had to confront with the truth. Either way, it usually isn't very fun.

"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair." - C. S. Lewis

I ran across this quote the other day, and it got me to thinking about how often parents can "shield" their children from the truth. Now, I am not advocating that parents disclose everything at all times to their children. What I am wondering is whether or not we are really doing our children any favors by soft-pedaling or blatantly hiding the truth or reality about the world we live in? These are just a couple "for instances."

• Everyone wins...there is a move in modern youth sports to give trophies to all the children, or to sometimes not keep score. For younger children, I'm sure this may have great benefits...we don't want to crush kids too early, but when do kids learn that losing and losing "well" are an important part of growing up. How long to we shield them from the reality that "sometimes you do your best and lose"?
  
• Have you ever told your child that they can be anything they want to be? Can they really? If your child wasn't born in the U.S., they sure can't be President. And all we have to do is watch the first few weeks of American Idol to realize that some people weren't created by God to sing. Why don't we say, "you can do exactly what God made you to do" instead?

I am aware that these are some potentially "extreme" examples, but these are the kind of random thoughts that make me think about what is really best for kids. Hopefully, it will make you think, too. Only, you know your kids, but the warning from C.S. Lewis' quote is that if you're after comfort, you may not get the truth, and that may lead to despair...something that none of you want for your kids.


Robert