Recently, a 7 year old
Florida boy was up way past his bedtime, mulling
around, finding ways to avoid that final goodnight hug
and kiss from his mom and dad. Being a 7 year
old, he still doesn't realize how much it helps his
mom and dad when he does finally drift off to
sleep. Well, this night he pushed and pushed
his mom and dad until they eventually had to threaten
him with taking his favorite toy away. To his
dismay, he complies and says his last good-nights,
gives his last hugs and kisses and goes off to
bed. He then goes through his usual bedtime
routine - says his prayers, asks the Lord to watch over
each of his family members (passed away and living),
his stuffed animals and his dog too. After a
few minutes of laying there with his eyes closed, he
realizes how thirsty he had gotten with all that extra
time awake, mulling around and so forth.
Knowing how firm his daddy was with his threats of
punishment, he didn't dare get up and ask for water
now. So he lays his little blonde head back
down upon the pillow and tries his hardest to go to
sleep, in hopes that his thirst for water would just go
away. After several attempts at sleeping and
trying to forget about getting a drink, he decides that
he is just too thirsty to wait until morning and must
take a chance getting that water. He knows
that this is a legitimate claim - that he needs water
and that mom and dad will surely
understand. So he wanders out of
his dark bedroom into the bright lights of the kitchen
and on into the breakfast nook to retrieve a
mini-bottle of water from the little beverage fridge,
moving quickly and inconspicuous as to not cause a
stir. He makes it by his mom, who asks where
he's going, allowing him to be on his way and also
hoping that Dad doesn't see him. He notices
that his dad is talking on the phone, but standing away
from the kitchen, just far enough away that he won't
even know about the trip to the fridge. Just
as he makes his way back from the little fridge,
mini-bottle of water in hand, his dad turns
around. Oh no, he
thinks! His dad, not the tolerating
type when it comes to bedtime, turns his head away from
the phone and says "What are you doing out
here?". As his eyes welled up with a
possible first wave of tears, he utters softly
"I was thirsty, so I got some water from the
little fridge". His dad, consumed
with an important phone call, just nods and says
"okay". The boy made it
back safely to his room.
Once his dad finished his
phone call, he was able to take a moment and think
about the brief exchange he had with his son just a few
minutes earlier. He remembered those tears on
the verge of pouring out of his little boy's eyes and
how he couldn't take a minute to explain to his son
that he didn't say what he said in a mean way and that
he actually said "What are you doing out
here" in a kidding way, not intending to come
across in a mean way at all. But, did his boy
know this? Obviously not, because his eyes
quickly watered up, imagining only his most favorite
toy being taken away from him. He wasn't
about to assume that any dad would cut him slack at a
moment like that. Well, the truth was, his
dad did cut him slack for that brief moment and he
wanted to make sure that he let his boy know this
before he drifted off to sleep for the night.
So his dad makes his way down the hall and goes into
the boy's room, with barely enough light to see his
way. He sits on the edge of his son's bed
and whispers "Are you still awake
Eric"? And he replies "Yes
Daddy". His daddy gently explains to
him how he may have misunderstood just how he had said
what he said and that he didn't want him to feel like
he was doing something wrong. He wanted his
boy to know that it was okay to go and get that
mini-bottle of water as he did, and explained that he
was sorry if he had to feel scared or threatened in
doing so, and that he should never feel that way when
he really needs something important like
that. The boy responded
"Thank-you Daddy, I love
you". They had a long, wonderful hug
and then said good-night for the last time, or so they
thought. As his dad let go of his now very
much relieved son, he looks at the night stand next to
the bed and notices that the mini-bottle of water was
sitting there, and unopened.
"Eric", he says, "You
didn't even drink the water! How
come?" With so much love now in his
eyes, he replies "I couldn't open it and I
was afraid to come out and ask you to do it for
me". Needless to say, more
apologies, hugs and kisses followed this reply from the
best little boy on Earth. It takes a loving
and caring daddy to realize little things like this and
to not just let them go away. This
precious little boy was going to go without water after
all that, just because he didn't want to take a chance
on losing his favorite toy for a day. I love
that boy more than anything in the world.
One night, long after he went to bed, 6 year
old Eric got up out of bed and came into the livingroom
to say that he just could not go to sleep. I
immediately prescribed him the usual cure for his
insomnia - go back to bed and count to one hundred
really really slow. This does work, but not this night.
Upon his return, I tried plan B - go back to bed and
say the alphabet really slow, 10 times. This was
usually a sure bet with him, so we didn't expect to
hear from him again until morning. Well, 10 minutes
later he returns for a third time, saying
"Daddy, I still can't get to
sleep". I know he did what I asked, so I
couldn't be mad at him. I took him into his room and
sat on his bed with him. I said "Eric, do know
what I used to do when I was little and just could not
get to sleep at night?" He replies
"No, what did you do?" I proceded to
have him lay back, close his eyes and imagine that he
was in this far away place, a place like he'd never
seen before. I said to imagine seeing all these rolling
hills of trees and grass and wonderfully brilliant
flowers, with birds chirping and a nice warm breeze
blowing. I said to imagine a beautiful
skyline of mountains across the way, just like his
favorite, the Smoky Mountain Range in Tennessee. I said
to imagine a beautiful blue ocean between the rolling
hills of flowers and the mountain range, lulling him to
sleep with each soothing scene I described. I told him
to imagine all these wild animals grazing in the fields
together. I noticed his eyes getting sleepier and
sleepier, and then they finally shut. Even though the
eyes had closed, I knew he was mostly likely still
awake. So I said "Now say the Our Father 10
times very very slowly Eric, then say 10 Hail Mary's
very slowly." I quietly got up from the bed
without too much movement, and not to disturb his deep
concentration. I took 2 steps toward the door and I
hear his soft little voice call out
"Dad?". I said "Yes,
Eric". He says "Did you ever make it
to the Hail Mary's?" Needless to say, we
laughed for days over this precious moment.
