My 12-year-old son came home from school with a prize he had earned in class.  It was this is really cute pink floppy eared Easter bunny. He said he got it for me, but he said he wanted it for himself also. He seemed almost ashamed that he would want something cute and comforting because he’s a 12-year-old boy who’s supposed to be strong and grown up. His hesitancy made me pause and think about why. Why do we think being grown up means not needing or wanting something that brings comfort?  Why do we think that being grown up means not enjoying something that might seem childish or immature? It’s like we think when we go into adulthood that everything that we used to find fun and comforting should just be something we put aside, but is that really true? Have we outgrown these once enjoyable and comforting things?

As a part of my single grown up life, I have begun having game days with my friends. At first, we only played more mature games like rummy, hearts, or BS. One of the times we were playing we looked over and my friend had a game from his childhood sitting on the shelf – Parcheesi. Now our first thought or my first thought was “that’s a kid’s game, we can’t play that.” But we started playing it because we have played the same games repeatedly and wanted to do something different that day.  What we found was it became one of our favorite games to play when we had a game day. There’s a lot of strategy and it can be played pretty cutthroat. It’s loads of fun. So, something that I deemed as too childish, a game from my past was actually really amazing.

I’m not saying that we should keep all childish things.  There are childish things that we should leave behind because we mature and grow out of the need for them. I don’t think that all things that are fun and simple or childlike are things we should run from though. They’re not things that we should be ashamed of wanting. 

Maybe it is OK to want a teddy bear to hold on to or to hug. Or perhaps it’s perfectly acceptable to play a game like Parcheesi or Sorry and have a good laugh with all of your other grown-up friends doing it. It’s even fun to sing those old campfire songs or Sunday school songs and remember what it was like when life was much simpler. Not all of our childhood should completely be banished out of our minds or banned from our current life experiences because we’re adults now. Maybe every once in a while, we need to remember how far we’ve come but still get to enjoy a few simple pleasures in life. Perhaps we don’t need to try to be so grown up all the time. 

So, as I sit here tonight holding this silly little cute floppy eared bunny, I want to tell my son that we’re not weak or silly because we enjoy small comforts. That even adults have simple childlike activities that they still like to do. That not all of being an adult is taking yourself too seriously or overthinking every situation. Sometimes it can just be about enjoying a moment we’re having fun. And yes, the Bible does say that we should enjoy our life so let’s do that. Let’s not take ourselves so seriously or be so quick to leave behind simple pleasures that can bring us so much joy if we’re daring enough to not be worried about what other grown-ups will think about us.

Listen, the bottom line is that we can’t avoid responsibilities as an adult, but we can work to not take ourselves so seriously or have life feel so heavy. We can take time to smell the roses. We can reminisce and even do some of the activities that we used to enjoy just for the sheer pleasure of remembering. Not all of adult life is adulting, don’t forget that. If you do, you’ll miss it, the fun and lighthearted moments.  That would be a tragedy.