So today at church there was a really great story told in one of the talks! It was also a really great teaching idea so i'm writing it down more for the future then anything else.
The speaker told a story about one of his sons when the son was about 17. The speaker and his wife had gone to a ball game and one of their teenage sons had the car. The son was told specifically to give them a call when he got home after work around 7:30.
Well him and his wife lost track of time at the ball game and forgot all about the call. But when they got home around 9:30, their son was not home. This was way back when cell phones weren't as common and so he did not have one.
They waited and thought well maybe he needed to stay late at work. So they called where he worked. No he's not here, his boss said, and he left right on time. This worried them even more so then they started to call friends. Nope, we don't know where he is, they all said.
By this time it was 10:30 so they called the house where his older brother was hanging out that night. Nope, the friend said, they just left and they said they were going to go to Walmart and a few other places before they headed home. This made the parents pretty upset because not only was the closest walmart 20 mins away from their home, but they had an 11 o'clock curfew, and now there was No way they were going to make it home in time.
Now knowing where they were the parents hatched a plan to teach their boys a lesson. The husband drove to the walmart with a spare key and found the family car they had loaned the boys for the evening and moved it to the other side of the parking lot behind a huge semi truck. Then he walked back and waited.
Sure enough there were his two boys sauntering out of Walmart and then they saw the space where the family car used to be. The father let them freak out for a minute or two and finally walked up to them and dangled the spare keys in front of them.
After the releif had hit them, he asked them how they had felt when they saw an empty space where their car once was. Oh dad, they said, it felt like someone had thrown a rock in my stomach, i felt like i was going to puke.
Then the teaching moment came. How did you think your mother and i felt sons? he asked. When we had no idea where you were? The same... the sons replied.
...anyway, i'm not a very good story teller, but dave and i both decided we're going to do that to our kids if we have to.
2 weeks ago
