Playing Outside is God’s Idea

I'm a baby boomer. The internet frequently shows montages of the 1960s with titles like: If You Grew Up in the 60s, You Remember These..." I love watching them! They ARE the childhood of Baby Boomers. We rode bikes with baseball cards clothes-pinned to the spokes of our tires so it sounded like a motorcycle! (If you're wondering what a clothes-pin is, we used them to hang laundry outside on the clothesline.) We drank icy cold water from the backyard hose. In summer we left the house right after breakfast, ate lunch in the backyard at the picnic table, and stayed outside until Dad came home from work. We rode, we raced, we played ball. We ate drippy popsicles, made necklaces from weeds, and built forts in the dirt. On rainy days, we played board games on front porches. We were always outside because it was a wonderland to kids. An endless supply of things to do. Sometimes in exhaustion, we lay in the grass and took a nap. I guess it was a dikerent time. When we were kids, the streets were filled with boys and girls playing outside. Shouldn't playing outside be timeless? To God, it is.

In a small Old Testament book from 500 years before Christ –– Zechariah 8:5 –– God describes a future time of peace and joy. You might be surprised by the example God uses for peace and joy. "The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing." Children playing with other children outside in streets that are safe. Running, laughing, playing, exploring. It's healthy for kids to be outside. It stimulates creativity. It strengthens bones.

Playing outside is God's idea. Help today's kids put down the iPads and iPhones, turn ok the electronics, and discover the peace and joy of being a kid. Playing outside. Getting sweaty. Falling in the grass and laughing until their sides ache. Racing across a field. Making discoveries along the way. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our streets would be filled again with boys and girls playing. Get outside and play with your children and grandchildren. It's fun! And they will remember it.