Here's to You (Part 1)

It’s been a while since I have written anything that has made it past my hard drive and out into cyberspace. There are several reasons for this, but none of them very good, so I’ll not bore you trying to explain myself. Lately, in an attempt to conquer the dreaded writer’s block, I have been looking for inspiration in the world around me. I know that there are stories that are worth telling everywhere I look, but I seem to have forgotten how to notice them.

Since the point of this blog is to dwell on the comical, insightful, and inspiring moments of my journey through life as a Christian husband, father, and observer of life in general, I figured that the best way to jump start my dead brain was to focus in on the best in others. Given that, I am going to start a series entitled “Here’s to You…” In this, I will point out the good that I see in others. It could be little things, big things, or some of those medium things that fall in between. My goal is to train myself to look for the best in people and, in so doing, encourage anyone else who might be reading. So, without further ado I’ll begin. (When was the last time you ever heard anyone say “ado” without the word “further” or “much” in front of it? Tell me about it in the comments below if you think you can do it.)

I am a very fortunate father. (If you have any doubts about that refer back to my post entitled “Second Place” in February of 2008.) My kids are cute, smart, and very well-behaved. I’d like to think it is because of me that they are this way, so I will. One of the goals my wife and I have set lately has been to work with our girls on responding to us with enthusiasm when we give them a task to complete. The premise is simple. When Daddy asks one of them to do something, she responds with a cheerful, “Yes, Daddy!” and then runs off and does it. Occasionally one of them might forget the cheerful response, but a quick reminder will usually do the trick.

Tonight was a total failure. Tonight my cute, smart, and very well-behaved daughter was not in a “Yes, Daddy” mood. I think she was actually in a “Kiss off, Old Man” mood. Fortunately these moods don’t come very often, but when they come, they hit hard and are contagious. Tonight’s eruption started, ironically enough, just as I was settling down to read my girls a Bible story and put them into bed. I’m not sure how it all started, but it was one of those moments that went from bad to worse in seconds. After a particularly intense “discussion” with my cute, smart, and very well-behaved daughter, she was in her bed sobbing hysterically. (Because I had won...if you can call that kind of result a victory.)

Behind her closed door the sobs grew louder and angrier and I struggled to hold myself back. Fortunately, if I tried really hard, I could almost ignore the tantrum that was erupting. When I returned to the living room where all of this had begun, my other cute, smart, and very well-behaved daughter was sitting in her mini rocking chair right where I had left her when all the drama had begun. My blood pressure at this point was through the roof, my heart rate was sky high, and adrenaline was pumping through my veins.

I glanced down at the pajama-clad preschooler, pretty sure my spiritual meter was not set to “Bible Mode” when she looked up at me with the biggest grin she could muster and handed me the Bible. “Here you go, Daddy!” she said.

“Did God really just use a three-year-old with a smile and a Bible to change my mood?” I asked myself. It appeared that He had, because who could have resisted that smile? (I know that her smile really meant, “Aren’t you so glad I’m the good girl, Daddy,” but it was meaningful nonetheless.) As the boiling blood inside me started to simmer down, I took the Bible from her small hands and opened it. At this point, the tantrum was still audible down the hall, but all of a sudden something inexplicable happened. One second I heard a blood-curdling screaming moment of rage, and the next, it all changed.

“I’m sorry, Daddy!” The words tumbled down that hall as loudly as she could yell them.

“Did she just say she was sorry?” I asked my wife. My cute, smart, and very well-behaved little girl can also be very stubborn when these rare moods flare up. She’s not the kind of kid to give up like that.

“I think so,” my wife replied as I handed her the Bible and went in to talk to my cute, smart, very well-behaved daughter once again. Needless to say, the tense moment had passed and the worst was instantly behind us. Not to be outdone, I offered her my apology for letting my temper get the best of me in the midst of the chaos as well. The next thing I knew, she threw her arms around me and planted a heart-felt kiss on my cheek. It reminded me of the kind of kiss a little girl gives her daddy on her wedding day, the kind of kiss that says, “Thanks for being my daddy.”

“I’m sorry.” There is a lot of power in those words. Wrap that up with a kid handing you a Bible and anger and frustration don’t stand a chance.

I don’t always like it when my kids teach me lessons, but they are often the most meaningful. So here’s to you Maddie Rae and Hamster, the two best girls a dad could ever ask for.