“Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.”

We've all seen it before....Joe wuz here with a date....Bob + Sue = 4ever....or maybe its a leaf pressed down ...or an errant hand or footprint.  There is something about wet cement that calls out to us.  Makes us want to make our mark in it for eternity.  So it is with children, but also every person you encounter.  They are the newly poured sidewalk we pass by on our way through life. 

Sometimes the cement is too wet.  We take a stick or our finger and try to carve out something profound....but it doesn't stick.  The surrounding cement rushes back in to fill our tampering.  Maybe there is a faint echo of what we tried to convey. It's subtle, but it's there.

Sometimes the cement is almost set.  It takes some work to get the thick surface to give way.  Usually when it's this thick, you dislodge pieces and are left with a jagged and rough message.  Indelibly marked, but painful to walk on and may trip you up if your not careful.

Sometimes it may be something dramatic.  I think back to those black and white movies where someone falls into the smooth fresh surface, usually face down.  Cement flies everywhere, sloshing out of it's defined boarders and covering the person who fell.  It's usually comedic to an outside observer, but I don't think the person covered in muck or the sidewalk ever laughed.

This tampering doesn't stop once the cement is dry.  If you look down a sidewalk you will see cracks and uneven parts.  Trees grow and their roots break apart thoughts and ideas you thought were 'set in stone'.  Other ideas and plants grow in these cracks.  Sometimes they bloom into beautiful flowers.  Sometimes we spritz them with weed killer and try to pull them out.

Every person is a sidewalk in varying stages of set.  Children are the newest and freshest.  Even if we don't feel the desire to etch  things into who they are, we still leave a mark by our passage.  Hopefully we wont trip and fall into them.  But a gentle hand, a loving message...these do not mar the surface of their life but adds to the beauty of it.  Helping them to move forward, section by section.  Joining other sidewalks to complete a journey and turning corners when they come to them.