Zach, a Bike and Jesus

We're big on natural consequences around these parts. As hard as it can be we are not the types to fly in and save our children. One of the things that is expected of them is to put their things away (unfortunately this is not always the case and we did have a family meeting about that just today, but I digress...).

Zach LOVES riding his bike. He spent much of the early days of summer riding up and down our driveway hours at a time(which seemed quite boring to me). It seemed like he rode every day and couldn't get enough.

After one bike ride though, he didn't put his bike back where it belonged. It was laying down and the front wheel was right behind the van (do you know where this is going?). Jeff backed up, felt something and looked down to see the mangled front tire of Z's bike. There was no fixing it... it was "totaled".

I was so mad when Jeff told me. We went and got Z and marched him out to see what had happened to his bike (natural consequences right?). At the time he was playing with the Bigs and was a bit annoyed that we had called him outside. He looked at his bike and the front wheel and kind of shrugged. This was incredibly annoying to me. He didn't seem to care. We talked to him about it but he was eager to get back to his play. Jeff and I looked at each other dumb-founded... that hadn't gone the way we intended.

Fast forward a week... I was outside pulling weeds when all of a sudden I hear Zach screaming, "NO!!!!!!!!!! HELP ME JESUS!!! HELP ME! HELP ME PLEASE JESUS!!"

Thinking he may have been hurt, I went running to see what had happened and there was Z, looking over his mangled bike with his yellow bike helmet on- big crocodile tears running off his face and onto the driveway.

(Thank you Jesus... Natural Consequences- albeit a bit later than I had thought, now realized!)

I scooped Z up in my arms and calmed him a bit. I told him I couldn't fix his bike and we talked again about how his bike broke and what he SHOULD have done.

Fast forward another week or two... Joe and Jeff went on a long bike ride and Al rode her's to Great Nan's all while Z looked longingly on but said nothing.

Well, Jeff and I decided it was time. He took Z's bike to the bike shop and got a new wheel and we now have a VERY happy Z. Jesus answers prayers buddy (and sometimes so do parents)... just not always exactly when 4 year olds wish he (they) would.