Do we really understand what goes on in a 7 year old’s head? Do we really need to understand? Can we simply listen to whatever ideas and thoughts they are willing to share and not try to read too much into it? Well, I didn’t have to read too much into these thoughts that this 7 year old shared.
A couple of weeks ago I was playing with 2 of my great nieces, Sophie (7 years old) and Scarlett (5 years old). Since I agreed to entertain them for a while, I pretty much had to play whatever they chose to play. As is usually the case, Sophie was in charge of deciding what we were doing. She had a couple of sheets of stickers and we would have to earn the stickers for them to be stuck to our shirt. The person with the most stickers on their shirt at the end of the game, won the Grand Prize.
We were then asked to call her Coach Soph. Scarlett ignored that request, but I went along with it.
Coach Soph determined if you were worthy of a sticker. Here are the sticker worthy guidelines:
- Say something nice
- Do something nice
- Help someone do something
- Be kind to any of the dogs in the room
- Be kind to each other
You get the idea of the sticker worthiness rules. It’s obviously, all about kindness.
I asked Coach Soph why she picked these sticker worthy rules and her words were…
“Because we should all do these things for each other to make the world a better place and the world really needs to be a better place.”
She took me by surprise with those words. I don’t know where she learned this or heard this, but it doesn’t matter. Sophie was spreading the word and encouraging the actions.
Once again, I am inspired by a child. Obviously, they pay attention to more than we imagine. They can teach us so much, if we are open to allowing them to be children and give them permission to be who they are and say what is on their mind. I wrote a blog post last year about how these little girls teach me how to experience Joy and now I have a child reminding me to be kind to be part of making the world a better place.
Even though I felt more love for Coach Soph in that minute than I have in 7 years, she turned on me in a flash. I asked her 2 times what the Grand Prize was and she told me that if I asked one more time, I would lose a sticker. So much for the love and kindness of Coach Soph, but I did receive 2nd place behind Scarlett. I was awarded a broken candy cane that she found somewhere in the house. Scarlett got the candy cane in that was in one piece.
