Some of us remember a TV show, originally hosted by television personality Art Linkletter, called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” The show featured childrens’ candid, disarming, hilarious, and often touching interpretations of the world around them. While many of their insights were the result of their innocence or their imperfect grasp of how things work, their observations could also cut through to simpler and deeper meanings that we adults have grown too callous or preoccupied to see.

A few years ago, as my wife was putting our 6-year-old to bed, she asked her if she knew what a soul was. Without skipping a beat, Wren answered, “I do--it’s the part of your heart that stores kindness.”

While this might not be an all-encompassing definition, it’s elegance and simplicity—not to mention its powerful sentiment—left us both awestruck, widening our notion of her inner life as well as adding to our own. Then I wondered if these kinds of insights were ones she would be able to hold on to or if the routines and challenges of daily life would either drown them out or make them difficult to remember. Will Wren always feel such a strong connection between acts of kindness and their relation to her soul? Or the ability to make such perceptive observations about the essential aspects of her inner life and faith?

We certainly hope so, but then it also occurred to me--what childhood epiphanies and spiritual insights of our own have we lost track of over the years, and if so, is there anything we can do to bring them back?