Today the family and I had to be at church early. We jump in the van and take off down the road, already running a bit later than I wanted to. I am not much of a patient person when I have somewhere to be at a particular time.
It was a nice, cool morning and we were driving in the Geomobile with the windows down. This is our van that we do our geocaching in, so I call it the Geomobile. Out of the blue, my youngest son, Ethan yells “Stop daddy!” It takes a moment to figure out what is going on and what he said. I look back in the mirror and ask “What is it?” With panic in his voice he looks at me and says “My Lego man fell out of the van! I need you to go get him. He is my favorite one!” Looking at the clock and trying to judge my time, I look back at him and try to think of some way to keep going. “Son, we will never find it and the are other cars going down the road.” Ethan looks at me with those big brown eyes and simply says “Yes sir”.
Turning around at the next side road, I make my way back down the road in a hopeless attempt to find a miniature Lego character. Looking back in the mirror while making the turn, I saw that I made the right decision. Quietly from the back seat I hear a “Thank you daddy.” Driving back down the road at about 35 MPH, I am scanning the road for 1″ piece of plastic! I go to where I thought I first heard the panic-stricken yell and still see nothing. I pull over at a local volunteer fire department and tell him “Sorry dude, but I don’t see him.” “His name is Bobby! Can you look just a bit more?” he asks.
Pulling back into the road and getting even further behind schedule, I continue backtracking. Suddenly, there’s Bobby! Laying between the two yellow lines on the road and looking up with a hand-held up as if he was trying to flag us down. I make one more u-turn and make the grab for Bobby. Remarkably, Bobby looks fine. As I pass him back to Ethan, he immediately says “His foot is broke, can you fix it?” So tonight I will be attempting to fix Bobby foot!
You know dads, this is so much more than a story about toy. It is about patience, my kid’s heart and what is more important than my schedule. I could have done what I normally would do and just kept on driving and tell him “Tough luck buddy. You will remember from now on not to play with your toys at an open window.” However, what he would remember is that daddy that did not care enough about what is important to him. He would resent going to church that day and would not listen to anyone or what they would say. I would show my kid that he comes second when I have something scheduled.
Dads, we only get one shot at what we do. Each day is a special thing we have with our kids. You can look at it like a gift or a reward, and really, that’s what it is.
Psalm 127:3
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord,
children, a reward.
I want my kids to grow up knowing that their dad was a guy that loved them and thought highly of them. A guy that would change his plans, if anyway possible, to do with them what was important in their eyes. A dad that learned patience and showed it to them the day Bobby broke his foot.
Broke Foot Bobby