Gone Fishin'

This past Sunday I decided to take my oldest son Cole out fishing with me. Before we left the house, I talked about the ADVENTURE that we were about to embark on and how he was going to lead the way! (Cole is only 4 ½, so I knew it was going to be an ADVENTURE!) He immediately got dressed and was ready to go when he and his brother Owen, who’s 2 ½, got into it. After I separated them, both were crying. Cole still continued to get dressed and I told him, “What you did was wrong wasn’t it?” With a sad face he stopped and looked up at me saying, “Yes.” I followed by asking him another question. “Do you think you should still be able to go fishing after you just hurt your brother like that?” As tears began filling his eyes, he said, “No” and began to cry harder. At this, Holly and I looked at each other and were a little taken back by his answer! We didn’t expect that answer from our 4 ½ year old! Before we almost broke out in tears ourselves, I knelt down and talked with him.

I have learned SO MUCH about God through my privileges of being a parent! What I learned in that moment was this:

Like Cole, even when I get excited about the adventures of being with “Daddy” I easily become distracted by life, quickly forget about the invitation and totally screw things up! It’s in those moments that reality sinks in and I acknowledge that I’m not much wiser than a 4 ½ year old. However the way that I chose to “discipline” – (correct & train) Cole that day was due to my understanding of who God is! Although in my immaturity I mess things up, God (lovingly) still invites me into each day, knowing that there is more for me to see and to learn from! That’s how I want to be a daddy to my boys!

By the way, YES, Cole and I still went on our adventure for that day! Although we didn’t catch any fish, it’s all he talked about for the rest of that night!