On most mornings I spend about thirty minutes prayer walking a trail that winds through the woods and down to a lake near my home. Before heading out for this time of refreshing with the Lord, I usually ask my wife and son if they have any prayer requests or praise reports for me to bring before our Heavenly Father.

One morning I asked Jacob, who was eight at the time, the usual question. He noted, after briefly looking up from his coloring sheet, that he didn’t have any requests that day. I resisted the urge to say, “Maybe you should pray that you can keep your crayons within the lines!” and instead asked, “Do you have anything that I can thank God for this morning.”

One morning during a recent trip I got up to work out in the fitness center of the hotel we were staying in. As I got on the treadmill, I noticed something interesting.

The treadmill had increments of incline from 0% (which is level) all the way up to 15% (which is like walking up a steep hill). I immediately thought, “Well, there’s no way I’ll ever be using the 15%, that’s for sure!”

So, I started out at 1% grade, walking slowly to warm up. After a few minutes, I bumped the incline to 2% grade and started walking a bit faster. A little while later I was walking even faster. The grade was now up to 7% incline.

As I peeled the price tag from the cover of a new book I had purchased, I placed it on the shirt my seven year old son was wearing.

My wife, who was looking on, pulled Jacob to her and asked, “How much is he worth, daddy?” As she read the price from the tag, she playfully said aloud, “I don’t know if anyone would pay that much for him.”

“Well, that depends upon whether they see him on a good day or a bad day,” I continued the teasing.

Have you ever noticed that just when you think something is there for you…it isn’t? That morning, we had kind of a shock at the Brown house.

Many years ago, we put in an above ground pool in the back yard. It was about 4 1/2 feet deep and 24 feet round. In other words, it was a good size pool — holding about 15,000 gallons of water. Remember that fact. 15,000 gallons of water. That’s going to be important here shortly.