"Elliot, you need to go away!" Victoria told her brother dramatically. "I'm sick and you don't want to catch it!"
I chuckled a little bit as I heard her say this. Elaine and I are always trying to keep our children away from each other when one of them is sick, although in all honesty, once one of them gets a dread malady, chances are pretty good that they will all get it.
Distance may help the heart grow fonder, but our hope is that it will prevent the transmission of contagious organisms, as well.
"But you aren't sick, Victoria," Elliot said. "Can I have some of those chips?"
"No, Elliot!" Victoria said in an even louder voice. "They're mine!"
In this case, Elliot was exactly right. Victoria was not sick. I could only guess that she wanted the chips all to herself and so was trying to come up with reasons that her hungry brother had to stay far away.
I have discovered over time that my children are very good at coming up with "excellent" reasons as to why they should be able to do the things they want to do.
This is not just something that children do. If I am honest, there have been plenty of times that I have come to a decision and realized that I wanted to reach a particular conclusion and was just working backwards trying to figure out the reasons for what I just really wanted.
It isn't wrong to choose chocolate ice cream over strawberry and say "I just wanted chocolate today." But to delude yourself into thinking that you chose chocolate because the countries that produce cacao beans are really need of financial assistance and you are doing your part to help needy farmers in the third world is probably a stretch.
The most important thing is simply that we are honest with ourselves. True wisdom begins with knowing God. The next step to wisdom is knowing ourselves and our desires. Only then can we separate rationalizations from reasons.
It is not surprising that a three year old would want to eat all the potato chips herself, but learning to share is the path of wisdom.
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