Me and my little five-year-old dude had some father/son bonding this weekend over monster trucks and motocross. It was awesome. Here's the proof:
http://youtu.be/IczPbQnohVI
I had some concerns that it would be not awesome, however. Jon has had sensory processing issues in the past--loud noises in particular have been known to set him off. So as you can imagine, a monster truck show may be problematic. In fact, his inability to deal with sensory issues has kept us from doing a lot of things together over the years--going swimming together, visiting the beach--those kind of typically fun activities ended up being miserable.
But things have been changing over the past year at our house. The boy who didn't want to even put on his swimsuit last summer was outside this week on a slip n' slide having the time of his life. And that same boy--the one who covered his ears for an hour during a Christmas parade because a fire engine honked its horn--took out his earplugs as two monster trucks raced head to head 75 yards away, declaring it the "coolest ever."
And it really was the coolest ever. Sure, the monster trucks and motorcycles were cool, but getting to enjoy them with my son? It was one of those moments I'd dreamed of since becoming the father of a little boy.
So many of our stories with children seem to carry the refrain, "..if you'd told me a year ago we'd be doing X, I would've said no way." Life is incremental--it's easy to miss the change when your dealing with the day to day. I see it happen in our daily Good Dirt devotions--from day to day, it can sometimes seem like nothing is getting through, until seemingly out of the blue one of the kids will echo back a truth from Scripture. But in reality, it's not out of the blue--it's a truth internalized through consistent communication, all those little moments that can seem like they don't matter at the time.
But those moments matter. Just like monster trucks.