Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

How many times in my life are my children going to teach me instead of the other way around? It is strange, but true that so much wisdom comes out of the mouth of babes. Tonight it happened to me again.

OK, I am going to try and make this as concise as possible. I have to tell two stories for this to make sense. Also, please excuse yet another baseball story and an "I'm-proud-of-my-son-story."

Last week during our all-star practice my son Brandon accidentally hit one of our players in the head with the ball. It was thrown from second base to third. The young man wasn't paying attention and the ball hit him about an inch above the left ear.

Making a long ordeal short, the young man had a short seizure, a cracked skull, and was med-flighted to Birmingham for treatment. He could not speak for a couple of days and still is slow of speech. He cannot play for the rest of this year in any sport. Brandon was scared, upset, and blamed himself. The father of this young man was a great help to Brandon by telling him that it could have happened to anyone on the team and to not worry about it. The young man is going to be fine. He will be at the games and for that we are thankful. That's story number one.

Story number two is about my son being placed number nine in the batting order. This has never happened to him before. I am the third place coach and therefore am not in on many decisions. When I heard about Brandon's place in the order, I went in to "protective dad mode."

I just knew that Brandon would be devastated. I was thinking about how I was going to defend him. I wanted to come apart over this until tonight. After practice, I asked Brandon about it. I asked, "Well, how do you feel about batting ninth?" I never expected what he said. That shows how much I underestimate his maturity. He said, "I'm just glad I'm playing. Look at Quenton (the boy he hit in the head with the ball), he would love to just be able to play, but he can't."

WOW!! Did he ever put me in my place! I was brushing back tears when I told him how proud I was of his attitude. Why can't I see that he is OK most of the time when I get so bent out of shape? I pray that my thought patterns can become more in line with that childlike spirit God wants us to have. We need to take things like this more in stride as parents. Thank you God for my children who teach me so much about life!!

Special Thanks!!

Thanks so much to you my blog family. I appreciate being able to talk each day about my dad and have people sit in on the conversation. Thanks for all of your comments and thought about him.

Sunday at Creekside went well. I opened up the floor for people to comment about how they felt about their fathers. I also asked for comments from dads about fatherhood and the honor that God has even us as dads. I wish you could have been there. Lots of special words were uttered and even a few tears shed.

I miss my dad and wish he could have been here, but I know that can't happen. I do know this--because of Jesus and His resurrection, I will see him again one day. Isn't hope a great thing? What would we do without the confidence we have in Jesus and His promises?

I leave you with a passage. It is a passage of encouragement. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NCV) "Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about those Christians who have died so you will not be sad, as others who have no hope. {14} We believe that Jesus died and that he rose again. So, because of him, God will raise with Jesus those who have died. {15} What we tell you now is the Lord's own message. We who are living when the Lord comes again will not go before those who have already died. {16} The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And those who have died believing in Christ will rise first. {17} After that, we who are still alive will be gathered up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we will be with the Lord forever. {18} So encourage each other with these words."