Saturdays are such interesting days.
I know that people thank God for Fridays.
But I like Saturdays.
Most preachers don’t really like Saturdays because it’s on Saturdays that we can expect a perfect storm of problems to arise that all conspire to prevent us from doing our normal sermon preparation at 11 p.m. tonight.
Saturdays are lazy days.
This is really the Sabbath day of rest. Sunday is our worship day, but Sabbath, being the seventh day is a day of rest. So I’ve been resting.
Slept in.
Then spent two hours driving round trip to retrieve a thumb drive I’d left behind.
Then, spent some time with a nerd who repaired my broken Internet connection—which is why I can now gab with you for a few moments.
Then did some shopping for some little kids in Utrecht, the Netherlands, wondering what little Dutch girls, 6 and 8, like to play with.
While in the store, I witnessed one of the most awesome displays of childish obstreperousness that I have ever seen. This little girl, about 7, was on her knees in the toy aisle clutching a toy, but wanted another one which her mother refused to buy. She was not only crying, she was wailing—loudly. It caught the attention of other shoppers.
The mother scolded her, but didn’t give in. She could have ended this drama sooner than she did. But finally, to her credit, she simply walked away. This instantly infuriated the little girl and the wailing became louder, and she dropped her first toy and ran to catch up, and the wailing grew more distant, and I never saw or heard her again.
It was such an amazing display, that a father, shopping in the same aisle, asked me what I’d do if my son or daughter had cried and wanted a toy like that. I replied that, 1) no child of mine would even DARE to put on a scene like that at home or in public. So it would not come to that, and 2) if he or she did, I would have put toy number one back on the shelf, picked up the child and removed her from the store, and given her a paddling in the place God provided for paddling.
Good parenting should require very little paddling, but when it’s required, well, it’s required. (ASIDE: When I see something like this in public, I am always aware that some children are special needs children and different strategies are required. But this little girl was not a “special needs” child in a clinical sense, although she certainly had some specific needs!)
Interestingly, of my son and two daughters, it was the daughters who had the most “requirements” in this regard.
But I digress … So I witnessed that little drama … and then I took a nice walk in the gorgeous autumn weather. I told you almost a month ago, that I LOVE October, and I guess I really like Saturdays in October.
Talked to both my aforementioned daughters--one in Denver, another in Houston.
Tonight, going out with the wife for dinner.
Mexican.
She always orders fajitas.
How was your day?
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