Road to Recovery

I am so excited to share this update to my previous post, “Infection Control.”

Last night, my wife and I took our son, Batman, to a local church Fall Festival.  He had fun seeing some good friends, watching the preacher acting crazy as the kids splashed him into the dunking booth, and playing the various games that earned him tickets for toy prizes.  When we were about ready to leave, I took him to the prize table, where assorted trinkets ranged in price from 2 to 30 tickets apiece.  He had amassed over 30 tickets, so he had lots of choices, and I was content to help him with the process of selecting whatever he wanted to take home.

What immediately caught his eye was an inflate-it-yourself punch balloon.  You know, the kind with a large rubber band attached, so you can punch it rapidly with your fist.  I remember occupying many a Saturday with one of these bad boys from K-Mart when I was a lad.  He asked me to inflate it for him, which I did gladly, and he immediately set about his playful training for the boxing ring.  I interrupted him briefly to show him the stack of tickets he had remaining, to show him how many other choices remained, and to ask him what else he wanted.  To which he gleefully replied…

“This is enough!”

“Are you sure you don’t want anything else, Son?  You’ve got lots of tickets left.”

“No thank you.  I don’t want anything else.”

At which point I gave his remaining tickets to the youngster who was pestering my friend at the toy table for the best available bargain.  The child was delighted.  So was I.  (My friend – well, part of being a friend is pushing their buttons and having a bit of fun at their expense on occasion, right?)

It was a golden moment, and one that I plan to savor long.  I hope there will be many more such moments as my wife and I continue doing our best to empower our son with the tools of satisfaction and gratitude, so he can stand strong against the epidemic of materialism engulfing our people.  And the really great thing is – we got to go from this shining moment to a magical adventure as father and son grabbed our flashlights and trekked out to the Bluebonnet Swamp for a Haunted Hike.  I’ll be sharing that one with you very soon.

Joyfully,

Roger