Danielism of the week…
It was the little guy’s birthday this past weekend and we celebrated by having an “army party”. Basically, we invited some cool 5 and 6 year olds over to the house, bought a bunch of nerf guns, and went crazy for a few hours.
In honor of his birthday, here’s a quick story. His kindergarten teacher was presenting the concept of liquid measurements to his class, and asked the kids to give her examples of liquids that they drink. She then asked the class to give examples of ones that their parents drink. The answers were the same - juice, and lots of it. The teacher kept pressing, trying to get someone to say “coffee”. Understanding that the teacher was looking for a different answer, Daniel’s hand shot up. He was confident that he had it.
“Beer.” Daniel said, straight-faced. “My Daddy drinks lots of beer.”
The teacher was caught off guard, and tried to suppress her laughter. “Are you sure Daniel?” She asked.
“Yep,” he said, nodding emphatically. “My Daddy drinks beer all of the time.”
She called me to tell me the story. I was stunned - I’ve had one beer over my whole life. I hated it. I made it to the bottom of the neck before giving it away in disgust. At this stage of my life as a leader, there are other many other factors that play into my decision to abstain from alcohol (my IHOP-KC staff commitment being one of them). But the original reason for abstaining from alcohol was simply because I hate how it tastes. So, confused, I talked to Daniel later that night.
“Hey buddy,” I said warmly, “tell me what you said in class to your teacher…I drink beer?”
“Yep,” he insisted, happily. “You love beer.”
This went on for a bit until I realized that he was talking about root beer. Which we don’t drink very often either. So, however you slice it, I have no clue what formed his thinking on this issue, but I thought it would be fun to tell the story nonetheless.
For the curious, here’s a shot of the little dude at the Call in Kansas City a month ago, in all of its thumbnail-sized glory:
13 comments February 4th, 2008
