The Dreaded "Why" Questions

Today is my oldest son Jacob's 22nd birthday!

I have been thinking about how quickly time flies and yet, seems to stand still.  I don't really feel old enough to have a 22 year old son.  In ways, I still feel rather young, except that I am always exhausted.  Still feeling young may be due in part to the fact that my husband, Joel, is a few years older than I am.  ;-P

Anyway, I have thought a lot about how much Jacob has changed over the years and one thought came to my mind over and over.  It was the "why" questions.  I'm sure you know what I mean.  You have heard them over the years from various parents, the "Why is the sky blue?" type questions.  You've heard the jokes from parents about how they wish there was not so many "why" questions.

When Jacob was young, he had a ton of "why" questions.  He is kind of quiet; so, I learned to enjoy those "why" questions.  It was like a window into his mind.  It seemed his favorite place to bring up his questions was while we were in the car.  Sometimes, I looked for reasons to go somewhere, just so he would ask me questions.

His "why" questions never stopped.  They just became deeper, more spiritual, more political; you name it.  Sometimes, I don't know the answer to "why" people do the things they do.  Honestly, he doesn't expect me to know all the answers anyway.  I've had to tell him that "I don't know" more than once.

The thing that I struggle with most is knowing how to answer all of his questions; but, the thing that I love most about Jacob is that he is NOT afraid to ask those tough questions.  In hindsight, I am thankful that Joel and I encouraged him to continue to question what he did not understand.  I'm grateful that he does not accept every opinion that he comes across and instead tries to figure out why he believes what he believes. He never accepts anything just because he was told he should.

So my encouragement for today is to the parents of young children...I know that it is tiring when 50 million "why" questions comes out, all at once.  However, consider this...when they grow up and are out on their own one day, they will bombarded with a lot of different viewpoints.  If you encourage those "whys" now, maybe they'll questioning those viewpoints later in life.  Maybe...they'll even come to you and ask you what you believe about those viewpoints; because, they know you will encourage those questions.

To Jacob, thank you for challenging me and for understanding when all I could say was, "I don't know!"  Happy Birthday!