Coloring outside the lines...

Recently, I was reading a book entitled "Rise to Your Destiny Woman of God" by Barbara Wentroble. From the first few pages that I read, I cant forget a paragraph which writes:

I thought of those Special Olympians one day as I observed my two young granddaughters, Lindsey and Kailee, who were spending the evening at my home. They had pulled out a coloring book and crayons and were trying to outdo each other as they colored all over the pages. Rather than correct them by saying, "Slow down, girls, and stay inside the lines," I decided instead to encourage them to break out of their natural limitations. "That's the way to do it!" I said. "Get outside those lines! Make your own designs. Don't get boxed in by someone else's idea of what the picture should look like."

I thought it was interesting to think of the whole situation that way. If I were her, I guess I would have asked my granddaughters to stay inside the lines... it'll look prettier after the finishing works! :p

The paragraph continued as follows:

Although encouraging children to color outside of the lines to create their own designs may seem inconsequential, it can be a step in the right direction of fulfilling God's purpose for their lives. If someone hadn't encouraged those Special Olympics participants to "color outside the lines," they might never have realized how big they could dream or how far they could go.

Well, she's right! Hmmm... perhaps that's just the way it should be done. We encourage our children to color outside the lines! Don't limit them because they can do more than we can imagine. Surely there are bound to be some lines to follow - else, the whole world would collapse without laws! You wouldn't want to imagine the road traffics in our country alone! Even in a family unit, it is surely a need to have some lines drawn for discipline and character building. However, we have to learn that there are lines in our lives that we have drawn (for ourselves and for our children) which needs to be erased so that we can fly and soar higher than how we have imagined in our own minds.

So guys, let's encourage ourselves & our children to "color outside the lines"!