The innate intelligence present in small children amazes me. They have an uncanny ability to cut through the B.S. and get right to the truth. I don’t recall having thoughts like the one in the story below. Do you remember thinking this way?

Around midnight last night, my 4-year-old son was sobbing at our bedroom door. My wife got up to comfort him. She went to his room to snuggle and talk with him in his own bed. This is the story my wife told me this morning.

“What’s wrong buddy? What are you scared of?” she asked him.

“My imagination… It’s too big. It scares me.”, he said.

He wasn’t able to describe what he imagined that frightened him.

Before she left his room, she asked him, “Would you like me to leave the door open a little?”

He replied, “No, the stuff I’m scared of is in my imagination and that’s in my head, so leaving the door open won’t help.”

OMG! My 4-year-old knows his fears are inside his head and that’s where he must deal with them. Having the door open was an outside solution that wouldn’t help.

It took me most of my adult life to realize this basic truth. Did I know it when I was four too? If so, how did I unlearn it?

Almost all of our fears and all of our worries are imaginary. If we can change what we imagine, we can change reality.