I’ll never forget the morning when God used a carton of chocolate milk to teach me about being a good steward.

Yes, a carton of chocolate milk.

It was a bright summer morning and my friend Phillip and I were set to play tennis as we had gotten into the habit of doing on most days.

Phillip dropped by my house that morning to pick me up for the quick drive to the courts in our hometown.

On this particular day, Phillip had purchased a carton of chocolate milk for his breakfast. (Yeah, I know, it’s not the healthiest of breakfasts, but we figured we’d work it off playing tennis.

During a visit to Cape Cod we took a 40 minute ferry ride out to the Martha’s Vineyard island. And let me tell you … what a spectacular view!

Shoreland in brilliant fall colors. Sailboats gliding across the water. Lighthouses dotting the beaches. Seagulls floating effortlessly through the salty air. In a word, picturesque.

My wife and I just took it all in and enjoyed the moment.

And even though it was a beautiful sight to behold, guess what our 4-year old boy, Jacob, was doing?

When I was a freshman in high school, I picked up a tennis racket for the first time.

Three friends and I formed the tennis team at our school and we embarked on what would become a four-year trek together that left us with a flood of wonderful memories.

Wonderful memories – except for the district tournament during that first year.

You see, none of us really knew how to play tennis. And that was all fine when we played each other, but when we met up against other teams from other schools that were comprised of players who had been playing tennis for years, that was a different story.

Several weeks ago my wife and I, along with our little boy Jacob, were checking into a hotel when we spotted some complimentary cookies in a basket in the hotel lobby.

Now, Jacob loves cookies. (He gets that from me, I suppose And a cookie sure sounded good at that particular moment in time. (When doesn’t it?!)

And those cookies looked good lying there in that basket.

A moment later, we were chomping on a couple of those cookies, and, let me tell you, they sure tasted good as well!

Then, less than fifteen minutes later, it happened.

What a great way to spend some time.

With an active four-year-old boy always wanting to “go, go, go”, it becomes necessary to find ways to harness and refocus his energy.

Never is this more obvious than when we are “waiting” somewhere. Whether it’s waiting for a table at a restaurant, waiting in a checkout line or waiting in traffic, it’s important to keep him busy without letting him bounce around all over the place like Tigger from Winnie The Pooh!

So, we started revisiting some of the games we used to play when WE were kids. Games like “I Spy”.

When our boy Jacob was six months old, I learned the greatest lesson of loving and forgiving that I guess I’ve ever learned.

I went into Jacob’s room where he was playing quietly with some toys in his crib.

As Paula gathered up some things to take with us, I reached into the crib and said, “Come to daddy.”

He looked up at me with a great big grin on his face and stretched out his arms toward me.

I picked him up and held him over my head as we usually played together.

I didn’t realize that Paula had turned the ceiling fan back on. And when I pulled Jacob up over my head, his head went right into those moving fan blades.

Shortly after high school, I worked for a while waxing and buffing floors at a local grocery store. Then the time came when I wanted to find a “real job”, so I had my resume’ typed up to submit to potential employers.

Of course, one of the critical things that you list on a resume’ is your employment history, which in my case included waxing and buffing floors.

Now, that entry on my resume’ didn’t really stand out as something desirable for potential employers, so I did my best to make it sound as important as possible.

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” – Romans 6:17-18
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During a trip to Yellowstone National Park, one of our favorite places was a climbing spot that we found at one of the picnic areas.

It was a bunch of huge rocks that progressed up to the top of a cliff and there were people climbing all over them, so that meant there was no stopping Jacob (our son, who was 4 at the time).

Jacob’s never found a rock that he didn’t want to climb on, and since I love to rock-climb myself, it didn’t take much to convince me.