Ever hear a kid say “I’m bored”? Or, “Bor-r-r-ring,” in response to just about anything?
Or, “I don’t have anything to do. It’s so boring,” the kid says as he walks past a bookshelf, tosses his laptop on the couch, and stuffs is teenage face with candy.
Kids get bored. Rather, kids think they get bored. It’s part of growing up, but too many kids persist in their boredom right into adulthood. They’re never redirected by an adult so teenage angst turns into adult ennui, and a host of other issues.
There are a lot of people standing around with an attitude of indolent indifference. They don’t care and are lazy about it. Boredom has done its work. There’s no vision, no energy, at least not for personally or socially productive ends. There’s only apathy.
Boredom is dangerous. It deadens the spirit. First it robs your present of its potency. Then it robs your future of its potential.
From time to time when our four children were young one of them said, “I’m bored.”
We’d say, “You are not bored and not allowed to be bored. Go find something to do. Go outside. Better yet, do something for someone else so you quit thinking about yourself.”
Then my wife would weigh-in with her kicker: “Only boring people are bored.”
The message wasn’t: “You’re committing a sin admitting to boredom.” The message was: “You’re committing a sin if you stay bored.”
We wanted our kids to know they are stewards of their time and God said to use it wisely, to redeem it. We wanted them to understand that no one with an active mind and healthy body can possible be or remain bored in the infinitely beautiful world God created.
God didn’t make us to be bored. He made us to be and do to his glory and to the benefit of our family and others.
“Bored Kids” should be an oxymoron, something that makes no sense. Yet we’re allowing an entire generation to come of age whose principal characteristic is boredom.
I don’t blame the kids. I challenge the adults to give the kids something to be un-bored about.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2012
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