The Monsters In Our Closet

I have found that often times when my kids and I are in the car together, some of our best conversations and shares occur. My little loves are six and seven now and they love to share stories about school, their BFF’s, their recess football games, their “best and worst” of the day, and alllll the things you would imagine a six and seven year old talking about. Much of what they come up with on our rides has us all laughing so hard we nearly pee our pants, but every so often when they share their stories, I find myself being reminded of important lessons about this one life we get to live.

As Angela Schwindt said…

A few weeks ago while driving, my son was telling me a story that went something like this…

J: So Mom…I had this crazy dream last night. It was kind of like a nightmare and really scary, but then I realized it was just a dream and it actually wasn’t that scary at all.

Me: Oh wow! Really?!? Tell me about it.

J: Well at night when I’m in bed I keep hearing noises and thinking there is like a monster in my closet. And so my dream was about the monster and I could hear this weird, scary noise coming from my closet and I really didn’t want to look to see what it was because I was so scared, but actually I got out of bed and decided to open my closet door and see. Mom…it was SO SCARY to open my closet, but guess what?

Me: What love?

J: I opened the closet and it was a really cute, little monkey!!! He was eating a banana and making noises from eating and he wasn’t scary at all! It was so funny Mom! So yeah, basically now I’m not really afraid anymore at night when I’m in bed.

Me: Oh my God! That is the best dream! The monkey was just eating a banana and you only knew because you were brave enough to go looking and open up the closet door!

After my son shared his story, the three of us drove along laughing so hard about this cute little monkey eating the banana in the closet. We made up all kinds of stories about how long the monkey might have been living in the closet and where he might have gotten the banana from and where his family might be living and how this monkey got into the closet in the first place and…well…our imaginations were running wild and we were having the time of our lives!

As we drove along laughing and joking, all I could think was, My God…they’ve done it again! My son had reminded me that the monster hiding in our closet, or in this case the monkey, is not nearly as scary as our minds make it up to be. When we get the courage to get up out of bed, open the closet door, and take a peek, we just might find there’s nothing scary at all.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you imagined the worst case scenario or made up stories in your own head only to find none of what you were imagining or thinking was even true? You made the monster in your closet out to be this gnarly, giant, hairy thing with big fangs just waiting to get you when in reality it was just a cute little monkey trying to eat his banana in peace?

I know I have!

When we finally stop the madness, get out of our own heads, and uncover the truth of the situation, it tends to be a lot less scary than we imagined it would be.

So the next time you can’t sleep because you’re hearing noises in your closet and your imagination is running wild, dig deep inside, pull out your bravery and courage, put one foot on the floor followed by the next, walk right over to the closet and OPEN THAT DOOR! Whatever you find will most likely be a lot less scary than you imagined. And hey, you never know…it might just be a cute little monkey.