Jesus Loves the Little Misguided Children, Too

As I sat in the McDonald’s drive-thru waiting for my 2 cheeseburgers and a parfait, I looked forward and saw a small child peeking over the back seat in the car in front of me. He had this real inquisitive look that only a child could give, and then he preceded to give me the bird. It was perfectly formed—knuckles tight and middle finger extended as far as possible with noticeable muscle strain! Not exactly a “Precious Moments” figurine experience! Here I am minding my own business and a five-year-old is insulting me. I ended up just sitting there, understanding that there is no way this kid understands completely what he is doing, hence his huge grin. I avoided making any negative response and refused to reward his behavior, but I found myself overcome with sadness. His parents were sitting in the front seat and didn’t see any of this, and I had the thought of getting out of my car and telling them what he was doing, but I decided this wasn’t a good idea because I had no idea how his parents might respond.

This was just one of those times to sit and be sad. He had no idea what he was doing and besides my hair being a little messy, this couldn’t have been about me. A good Christian might pray for the boy right then and there, but I have not achieved this level of sainthood. Out of all of this came the thought and question: what is a proper response to a situation like this—the proverbial 5-year-old flipper offer? And a companion question: What will I do when I catch my 5-year-old flipping someone off? (I plan on these things happening).

Memphis Tornadoes

No, I’m not talking about a dinky little semi-pro roller hockey team, Memphis tornadoes refers to actual tornadoes. One touched down at a mall 10 miles away from our house, but we just got a lot of wind and rain.

Here is what I think is funny: Memphis city schools let out at 12:30 in the afternoon because of the possibility of severe weather. They weren’t even predicting the storm to come through until after school was out. It didn’t even start raining until 4pm. This is way different than what would happen in Edmond, OK public schools. I had to remind myself, though, that Memphis has a more litigious culture, especially when it has to do with schools and liability, and also, a high number of kids are in after school programs until 5 so their parents can work—and things were pretty crazy at 5. So, it makes more sense to me now, but is so different from where I grew up.