Reginald Crews, Tournament Angler

This morning my 13 year-old son woke up in a mood that at best was funky. He went into the bathroom and saw that his right eye was a little infected and swollen so he got funkier. He did not want to go to his summer music and arts program looking like that. He then began questioning why he even had to go to the program anyway. He felt that he should have a choice and not be ordered to go by his parents. As the morning went on he began saying some things that were not too nice. It was getting to the point where I was contemplating giving him a matching swollen left eye. That's when I had a Jesus moment.

If you remember Jesus often spoke to the people in parables. He told the people an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. As I was standing there listening to my son approaching the realm of receiving a beat down just short of child abuse, I saw the squirrels in a tree in my back yard. These squirrels were chasing each other all around the tree and jumping from tree to tree. That's when God gave me a parable for my son.

After my son went outside and loaded his violin and gear into the truck I walked outside and asked him to follow me into the back yard. His only response was "I'm in trouble huh?" I didn't respond. As we got close to where the squirrels were I asked him if he could see them and he advised that he could. Here is what I told him:

Son when those squirrels were born they didn't want to do anything but stay in the nest. After a period of time, they would peak out to see what was outside but would go no further. In time, their parents pushed them out of the nest to venture out and walk around a little. As they grew stronger they began climbing on the side of the trees and then even jumping from tree to tree. Now they can climb as high as they want and soar from tree to tree. This was made possible all because their parents made them do something that they didn't want to do.

After I told him this he told me that he understood what I was saying. I told him to go apologize to his mom. He went back into the house and apologized to his mom and we got ready to leave. Before we left I called him "Squirrel" and he laughed and his attitude was better the rest of the day.

Thank you Jesus.