The Grown-Up Neverland ~ A Guest Post by Karlena

I know that most of you are probably tired of hearing bad news about the sorry state of the world today.  You might feel fed up with people constantly repeating more evidence of a society in demise.  Perhaps you find it depressing to hear of the news of the day.  Please, bear with me.  The following news is too important for you to ignore.

PETER PAN HAS GROWN UP!

And not just Peter Pan either.  Wendy, John, and Michael have all grown up with him.

 

“How do you know”, you ask.

Simple.  Just listen to the way today’s adults talk (or “speak”, as my mother would have said!).

Children everywhere are being subjected to horrendous things, like “soup”.  When did adults stop serving “pottage” to their “crew”?  Instead of combining their “pottage” with a “Dagwood”, kids are expected to eat “sandwiches” with their “soup”.

And whoever heard of telling a child to “stop eating with your mouth open”?  I remember when adults said fun things, like, “Quit masticating like a cow”.

Why, when I was a child adults understood that kids wanted to be told, “Your conveyance awaits”.  Nowadays you only hear, “Get in the car”. 

I, personally, am about fed up with that nasty new phrase, “Use your inside voice, dear”.  Is this not truly atrocious?  Who decided to stop telling children not to be so “boisterous”? 

I am sure that you have heard some adult say, “Walk your feet, honey”.  (I always wonder if the young person has the right leash?)  Why should children “walk their feet”?  Has no one taught them how to “tippy-toe softly- we don’t want to wake the mice babies”?

When did we forget the beauty of words?  How did we allow our day to day activities to rob us of the great vocabulary of yesteryear?

When did we forget the joy of hearing the words, “an egregious error” roll off our tongues?  I remember enjoying that saying so much, I would whisper it to myself at night!  I thank God for a mother who said, “THAT was an egregious error”!

photo credit

Mother was no grown up Wendy.  She understood how words could change everything.  That is why she never said, “You kids go play outside”.  She said, “I think that there is a new foreign country somewhere in the backyard.  Why don’t you children go explore it?”

Father also enjoyed using words that were worth saying.  In fact, he enjoyed using words of too many syllables to be written down here!  Father is a theologian and always believed that his kids are bright enough to know what “justification”, “redemption”, “sanctification”, and “eschatology” meant. 

I think that Dad and Mom understood that words were gifts from God.  They also understood that it is through words that we are introduced to God!

Do adults still read aloud to their children from the Bible?  Or do they think that their children are too dumb to understand what God has written to them?

As a child of God, I am thankful that He did not choose to speak to me in simple, nursery rhyme fashion!  Nor did He write a simpler “child’s version” of the Bible.

Let’s stop treating our children as though they are too weak to be given large ideas and big words.  Allow them to grow into theologians and sesquipedalians.  

It is truly a sad world to live in when we reduce our language to words of single syllables.  Let’s emancipate the minds of children everywhere!  It is time for Peter Pan, Wendy, John, and Michael to find their way back to Never Never Land.

Let me encourage you to try a few new phrases on your fledgling brood this week:

“Eschew obfuscation”  instead of “Stop making things so difficult!”

“Allay that cacophony” in place of “be quiet”

“Galloping is prohibited” rather than “stop running”

Take a cue from our Heavenly Father.  Use big words to express even bigger ideas to little ones with even littler understandings!  They, like you, are able to comprehend much when spoken to in love!

In addition to her love for sesquipedalian phrases, Karlena is someone who loves the LORD with her whole heart. She is an encourager, a fellow book-lover, a good friend, and a lovely example of a virtuous woman to all of us blessed enough to know her. Happily married to her high school sweetheart (who is Prince Charming in disguise) for the past 20 years, she has 10 of the world's most beautiful children with him.