Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Learning for Life (08/23/04)
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TITLE: Joy: Mission Possible By Bethany Payne 08/24/04 |
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“Okay…I’m up…I’m up,” I mumbled, half-awake, to my two-year-old son and to my alarm clock.
“Come on, Daddy! It’s time to get up!” He tugged at the corner of my blanket.
“Okay, Joseph, you go ahead and get started. I’ll catch up.” Famous last words.
My son giggled with glee and attempted a skip as he headed to the bathroom. It’s a daily ritual that I get up and help him get ready for the day. It was just that today, I needed a break. I had been helping him for two months. He would be okay for five more minutes.
When I finally peeled myself out of bed, I stumbled to the bathroom. As I approached the door, I heard the off-tune notes of Joseph attempting “The Old Rugged Cross.” I just don’t think the actual song was that bouncy. It also didn’t go like, “De Owd Rugged Cwoss.” But, I’m sure God understood it anyway.
Yawning again, I opened the door. And gasped.
Joseph was kneeling on the counter with shaving cream all over his face (and some in his hair). The front of his shirt was soaked and dotted with small globs of toothpaste. His hair was covered with shampoo. My comb was on the floor – along with Lake Erie. Toothpaste, shampoo, and shaving cream covered the wall and the mirror. Only one of our customary four towels was actually on the rack.
Joseph had changed the tune to “B-I-N-G-O.”
Oh, this was bad! And what if my wife woke up?
I looked at little Joseph, and suddenly I was mad. Real mad. I took a deep breath and was getting ready to lay on him one of “The Ones” (my speeches).
Right as the first word was on my tongue, he turned around and looked at me with an angelic smile on his face.
“Hi-hi, Daddy. I made me wook wike you! Aw by mysewf.”
Okay, I couldn’t resist those brown puppy dog eyes. Gathering up myself to full height (5’6’’), I looked him in the eye.
“Joseph,” I said, “you made a mess. What do you have to say for yourself?”
His smile was gone as he concentrated for a moment. Then, he looked up at me with another grin. “But at weast I had fun doing it!”
Well, I had started it. I had always told him to be happy and joyful in everything. I guess he figured this counted.
“Well,” I said, regaining my composure, “who’s going to clean all of this mess up?”
“I wiw,” he answered cheerily then promptly went back to examining his teeth.
I was a little put out when my wife scolded me for letting him get ready for the day alone. Grumpily I went in to go make sure that my son was cleaning everything up sufficiently.
Opening the door, I saw Joseph mopping up the water on the floor with an old T-shirt and humming the theme song for “Mission Impossible.”
Then I realized he had already learned the lesson, “In every thing give thanks….” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). He could find the joy in anything.
Maybe he was the one teaching me a lesson for life.