One of the question I get asked a lot from our six-year-old and three-year-old is, “Is this right? They are both at ages and stages where they are learning so much so quickly. They are acquiring new skills, gaining new experiences almost faster than I can keep up and they want to know that the difficult things they are trying are right.
But they aren’t that different than us as adults, are they? We crave knowing whether what we are doing and what we are choosing is the right path. We want to know, “Is this right?”
For so much of my childhood, I was sure I had the “right” answers. I knew they were right because I was told again and again what was right and wrong. As I’ve deconstructed the fundamental theology I was raised in, I’ve realized that the “right” answers were full of exclusion, assumptions, and generalization that just didn’t ring true for so many people.
It’s taken me a long time to answer this question, “Is it right?” I know the pain it can cause. I know the self-doubt it can bring.
And I also know that it is good and right that we reflect and remember and wonder whether our choices bring light and love to other people. It is good and right for us to stop in our tracks and look at the decisions we’ve made and intentionally choose where we want to spend our time and energy. It is good and right for us to wonder how our decisions impact other people.
And it always, always good and right to love, extravagantly.