I was at an event in Milpitas, CA celebrating the Indian festival of Colors - Holi. This is the time when adults become children again. They splash colors, dance freely and forget themselves for a while. This photo makes me realize no matter how old we get, the child within us is always present. We try to subdue it under social pressure and miss that freeness and innocence we once had.

This is essential for a well-rounded child’s soul and will carry into adulthood, where we are called to realize that we are indeed blessed to be alive and to show our appreciation for God’s creation.

To start with, we must understand that children are not just going to sit at their desks all day, getting things done, and then coming home.

Children need our time and our attention, and they can only focus on one task at a time.

We need to give them an area of our home or our garden where they can go and get something done for a short period of time and get a taste of time off.

After doing this for a little while, they will probably come to understand that there are many things to do around the house besides sitting at a desk all day.

Children need an environment in which they can move about, think, move their bodies, play with others, and give their eyes and their minds a chance to wander and look at the world around them.

Children also need to be taught not to always be on “autopilot” and to follow through with their work to completion

woman and a baby sitting on the ground

I know this sounds impossible, and I know it is because it seems so trivial and small to focus on whether or not you got a quarter of the way through a task or assignment.

But the whole point of appreciation is for us to realize that what we are doing for a child is the most important thing we can ever do in our life.

It is not about how well we can make math facts or how well we can finish that homework assignment.

It is about knowing that we are going to be there for a child in a difficult time.

I have seen it with my own children:

When they are having a hard time, I take one of the children outside, put them in a swing, and sit and play with them.

Once they begin to play with me, they forget about all the bad things that are going on around them, and they forget about the difficulties they are facing.

When they are finished playing with me, I put them back in their room and then take their brother or sister outside and put them in the swing, so that they can be social with him or her.

It is all about bringing them back into the present and out of the “teenager’s paradise” of video games and social media.

Children are going to need the freedom to be a child in the present.

For children to be blessed by this, they need to be given their freedom

Three smiling young women in their twenties with a one year old child.

In Scripture, we are told that God’s way is good, perfect, beautiful, and very powerful.

The only things that limit God’s power are our weaknesses and our wills.

Children are free to do as they please, but they do not have the power to do so.

A child does not have the power to make a decision or to move in a direction he or she does not want to move in.

I remember one day in the public school system:

The kids got out of school and they were having a field day.

There were lots of different stations and activities for the kids to participate in.

This was to make sure the kids were still learning during the summer, but the activities were going to be intense so that the kids would learn something during the break.

I watched as a child came up to one of the tables and looked for an activity to do.

It was some sort of engineering activity.

The child looked at the table and then looked at the child working at another station across from the table.

He had to look at the table a couple more times before he finally said, “Are we really supposed to do this?”

It is easy for us adults to justify why we do things the way we do

Woman and child touching faces

We say, “It has to be done this way because that is the way it has always been done.”

It has been said that in the body of Christ if you want to make God happy, you can make your husband happy, your husband’s brother happy, your brother’s friend happy, and your friend’s wife happy, or you can make all of them happy together.

But there is only one person in the world that can make God happy and that is you.

The body of Christ needs to be joyful and thankful for what God has given us to do.

At first, this can be difficult for us, because we need to be free and do the things we are called to do.

When we are forced to follow a system, the system can show us where we fall short.

However, we must allow the Holy Spirit to empower us in the faith and enable us to understand the ways of God.

We need to open our eyes and our hearts and let Him show us the way.

Our children need this freedom because if they are held captive by the system, they will never be able to see clearly the things that God wants them to do and will never be able to act on God’s behalf.