We were in charge of entertaining our 7-year-old grandson for the day. It was cold and rainy outside, not fit for outdoor activities, and he was getting to the age where he was bored with the toys in our house, most of which were designed for younger children.
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We didn’t want to just park him in front of a TV or iPad — he gets enough screen time elsewhere. Besides, we wanted to interact with him, use this precious time to do something together.
I came up with the idea of going bowling. He had never done that before — he didn’t even know what bowling was. We explained it to him, and he seemed excited.
When we arrived, he was in awe of how far down the lane the pins were standing. He figured he’d never be able to roll a ball, which he could hardly lift, all the way down that long journey and knock down any pins. But we asked for the bumpers to go up in the gutters to at least give him a chance.
Slow start, surprising results
For the next hour he struggled to pick up the ball, approach and set it in motion.
The ball would ooze down the lane, barely moving, drift to the side and take out maybe one or two pins. After numerous tries, I was concerned he would get frustrated and discouraged and want to quit. To my surprise, the opposite was true. Every time he knocked something down — anything — he would jump and squeal with delight. He would proudly point up to the electronic scorekeeper when it flashed his result. “Look Grampa, I got two!” he would exclaim. He had so much fun and couldn’t wait to come back again.
Lessons learned
It occurred to me that I want to go through life like that: Expecting little and being filled with joy at whatever blessings God provides. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he writes: “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus” (v. 19).
It took a 7-year-old to model that for me.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Ken Lass is a retired Birmingham television news and sports anchor and an award-winning columnist for numerous publications and websites.
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