I think it must be nearly impossible for a young person today to understand the complete freedom I had as a child.
No organized sports…you just took the ball and bat out to the street and a whole bunch of kids showed up. Only the well to do could afford piano lessons for their kids and most of us shared our bikes with siblings. We used to spend nearly the whole day out of the house (and I grew up in the Fraser Valley where it rains all winter and most of the other seasons too). “Gum boots” were familiar foot wear.
You might look like a child and do childish things but you were expected to act like an adult. Not in a confining way, but in a responsible way.
Once up and fed, the whole day was mine. I spent it in the back yard which consisted of a dozen fruit trees and a chicken coop. I’d climb all the “ripe” fruit trees, grazing on the best of the bunch, head to the chicken coop where the most fulfilling feast was sitting on the roof, eating the green gages that were dripping juice and the thought of which still makes my mouth water.
There were lots of cats, kittens and angora rabbits…tiny bits of fluff that were adorable.
In my teen age years I lived in a different house…only three fruit trees but I no longer was interested in fruit trees. I grew in wisdom and stature and in a better understanding of God. My chores included cleaning a four bedroom house (ours) and washing my neighbour’s brown “lino” floors (and was paid 50 cents for the task.)
I can’t remember being told I couldn’t do anything…parties, dances, school activities. Mom never monitored anything. The expectation was that you would never in any way embarrass your parents as they had plenty and enough to deal with. It was an unwritten law but one you never broke.
I’m not sure when God entered the picture…maybe through the church junior choir as I loved to sing, or maybe through the teaching of dedicated teachers but God just “sifted” in.
At fifteen I made a “born again” decision but it was not much more than the acknowledgement that He was mine and I was His. It was the best decision I ever made and one I have never regretted.
Things have changed so much since that little girl spent her days enjoying a freedom my grandchildren never had but one thing has never changed…God’s love for me and my love for Him.
Photograph by Idshklein (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
