What if?

My son likes to play the "what if" card.

As in, "What if you did get me a puppy?"

Or, "What if I got straight A's (something he does on a regular basis anyway... usually without much effort)? What are you going to get me?"

I usually respond with something like, "What if a huge meteor comes flying out of the sky and kills us all right now?" or something terribly clever like that. He gets completely exasperated. The point is that I am trying to teach him to deal with things as they are, rather than contemplating concerns or ideas that are completely impossible or improbable.

I wonder now if that's not the best policy. Perhaps I am quashing some of his creativity and expression. After all, as a planner it's my job to consider the long term impacts of decisions. And I have never heard of anyone who said that they had too much vision or had considered too many aspects of a problem.

I think that it's important to find a balance between our dreams and reality. I think that's why God gave us brains at the top of our bodies and our feet at the bottom. Our brains move us around and are able to see further away from our feet. Our feet keep us grounded. But always it is the brain which informs the feet about where we should be headed, and not the other way around.