I want to introduce you to my second cousin Shelby Smith. She wrote a guest post for me this week. She will be 20 soon and has already published a book on Amazon. Her book is titled “The Children’s Night for Yanis” and she writes under the name Aurora Lockhart. I hope you will enjoy.

Life can be quick to turn dreary after you enter adulthood. When all you do is work for your living, you’ll often think “Why on Earth did I ever want to grow up as a kid? I had it all wrong.” Yes, you now realize you had it wrong as a kid, but you’ve yet to realize you still have it wrong as an adult.

I once read a quote, and it’s more important now than ever: “Adulthood isn’t about giving up dinosaur chicken nuggets and apple juice, it’s about being responsible enough to buy them yourself.” We forget that even though we might have jobs, bills, and various responsibilities, they don’t have to stop us from enjoying what life we’ve been given, and what colors in it we can still see. When you go to do the dishes, the soap in the water makes little bubbles a lot like the ones you blew as a child. The sand on the beach you visited when you were young is all the same, and still waiting to be molded into another sandcastle. The art supply aisle at your local grocery store is stocked, all bright and shiny, just like you loved to see in elementary school. Growing up ought not prevent us from the little things in life. We still have to do the dishes and make our beds, but there’s no rule stating we can’t play with the bubbles or build a pillow fort if we have the time to spare.

God put us on this planet for a reason, and it’s not just to work in dull environments. He put us here to live life, and to see the little gifts He left for us to find and enjoy. We just need to remember to look with the eyes of a child.