I received a call at work, detailing Coop-dill's heartbreaking 2nd to last day of school, how he got off the bus, broke out in tears, and spilled his heart to his mom about all the mean things that his best friend said to him that day. But when I get home, Cooper says nothing about his day. When I pointedly ask, he non-chalantly says, "Harley' was mean to me today." Knowing the back-story from Sheri, I comfortingly asked him to tell me about it.
His 1 sentence reply made me realize that I parent a man in little boy shoes. His school was my work, and just like every other man, we talk about work while at work. We don't like talking about work at home. Is this innate? Can this behavior be learned so young? And how about the stark contrast in conversation between a son to his father vs. the same to his mother?
Hoping to equip my son with the training necessary to keep his self-esteem aloft despite the barage of piercing verbal missiles, I wrestle with the difficulty of breaking this concept into something a 6 year old little man can comprehend.
I paused a moment, and asked him if he thought Superman's outfit was cool. With bright eyes, he gave me a resounding, "YEAH!" Then, I asked him if Clark Kent was cool. Now it was his turn to ponder, and after a moment, he finally came to his own conclusion that if Superman was cool, and Clark Kent is Superman, therefore Clark Kent must be cool too!
That's when I told him, "Cooper, the Bible tells us that people look at the outside, but God looks at the heart. Clark Kent is cool, because he's really Superman on the inside, whether he is wearing his Superman outifit, or his Clark Kent suit. The same is true for you. You are cool, because of who you are on the inside, not because of the clothes you wear."
May we all take a lesson from God, Superman, and a little boy, and not only find, but hold on to our inner Clark Kent...
...Up, Up, and Away!!
No comments:
Post a Comment