One of my favorite hobbies as a young girl was coloring. I owned all kinds of coloring books with nature scenes with animals, princesses, and rainbows. I fondly remember purchasing coloring books at the grocery store along with crayons. Opening a box of brand new sharp, colorful crayons felt like you were opening a gift on Christmas morning. What was even better was if you owned one of the bigger boxes that included a sharpener in the back of the box. When my kids became toddler age, I naturally made sure they learned to color. Kids develop many skills through coloring at a young age; some include developing fine motor skills, building patience, and even spatial awareness. Whenever someone teaches a beginner how to color, you hear the words, "stay inside the lines." When you're that young, this is not an easy feat. Due to lack of control, the tendency is to color outside the lines and possibly all over the page. However, as you age, too much self-control enforces you to stay within the lines.
I heard Pastor Bill Johnson from Bethel Church share from the book, Breakpoint and Beyond, which studied children, geniuses, and creativity. The study was based on the same 1600 children evaluated from the ages 3-5, then again at age 10 and then at 15. So from the ages between 3-5, 98% of the children were considered creative geniuses. And then, at the age of 10, they were re-evaluated, resulting in only 30% creative geniuses. At the age of 15, only 10% came forth as geniuses. It was summarized that non-creative behavior is learned. The proficiency in expressing creativity gradually drops off as we learn to accept others' opinions, evaluations and beliefs. In another research, the author says that they have seen in working with 280,000 adults the 5-year-old geniuses are still lurking inside and waiting to break free.
So even though it's necessary to teach our little ones how to color inside the lines, it is even more important to explore the imagination outside of the lines and without boundaries. We are naturally creative beings who don't require permission to live outside of the man-made lines. It's time to break free the 5-year-old creative genius inside of you and be absolutely amazed by what you are designed to do. Be like Harold in the book Harold and the Purple Crayon; if you can imagine it, you can do it.
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