Sunday, January 24, 2010

Anybody want a free boat?



My youngest son is such a happy child. He is easy going and imaginative and loves to talk. Lately his favorite subject is what he is going to be when he grows up. Apparently it is very normal for children his age to ponder their future. I was listening to the radio the other morning and they were discussing a survey of children my son's age concerning their upcoming career choices. The most common answer among five year olds to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was, "Spiderman", according to the radio announcers.
Though it comes as no surprise to me, my son is a little different than his peers when it comes to his aspirations for adulthood. He has informed me he is going to be a boat seller when he grows up. Where he came up with such a unique career choice is beyond me. We do live in Florida and are completely surrounded by beautiful water, being close to both Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. We see boats all the time but we do not own a boat, we do not have friends with boats, nor have we ever set foot in a marine store of any sort. In fact, my son has only been on a boat twice in his life. Once when he was only a year and a half old, and more recently on my brother's boat on the pond in his backyard. My son does not remember the first boat trip and was terrified the second time. Of course, the whole time we were in my brother's tiny old dinghy there was an alligator only 15 ft away watching us very closely. Nevertheless, my son is convinced he wants to sell boats when he grows up. He has it all worked out. He will sell big boats and small ones. He, himself, will have a pirate ship and he will give me a free boat too. After I receive my free boat he will come over to my house for dinner and he will give me either 2 or 8 lifejackets, for use on the boat. His sister, much to her disappointment, will have to buy her boat, at the greatly discounted price of only $1. Ironically he has offered free boats to more than one complete stranger upon making their acquaintance even though his only encounter with them has been in line at the grocery store or sitting near them at a friend's birthday party.

I recently discussed the concept of vocations and God's calling for their lives with all of my children. This only further cemented the idea of boat selling in the mind of my youngest son. He promptly declared that God would want him to sell boats with prayers in them, and that his personal pirate ship would have two prayers in it!

I'm not sure my lovable little guy will ever be successful in the boat selling business. After all, you can't expect to earn much profit giving away free boats to every nice person at the grocery store. But, thankfully, I have no doubt with his kind heart, his generosity, and his amazing imagination my son will serve God well in whatever he attempts in life, and isn't that what God calls each of us to do?

2 comments:

  1. Just curious: Is your son's name Noah? :-) God bless you and your little ones.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That would be fitting wouldn't it? As it turns out, though, that is not his name. However, I told him about you and he said I can offer you an 18 mile long boat for only $18, it comes with a free prayer inside, are you interested?

    ReplyDelete

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