The Sting Felt Through the Years

I like to consider myself as a religious man, and there is a scripture that has stuck out to me ever since I read it. What it basically says is that the Lord forms us from the womb. I really feel that the Lord has done that, i.e. formed me from the womb. This post is about an experience that I had that helped mold me (even if incrementally) into the man I am today.

The story that I would like to share this week is a story that was brought back to my memory just yesterday. It was a story of when I was a young lad in kindergarten. The reason this story was brought back to my memory was because my wife and I were working in the garden on Friday. While slaving away my sweet wife had an unfortunate run in with a bee. It ended badly with the bee stinging her, and I had to come to the rescue. Luckily I knew exactly what to do! After all I did receive my "first-class" rank in Boy Scouts. I applied some mud to the wound instantly relieving her suffering hand. It brought back the memory of when I was first stung by a bee.

When I was in kindergarten I used to go to a Daycare while my parents were at work. My little brother and I called the Daycare "Teacher and Granddad's" (Not really sure why). Naturally, I ran the show at Teacher and Granddad's. At that age I was really busy with my friends playing tee-ball, exploring their 1-acre backyard like Lewis and Clark, and saving the world everyday as our favorite super-hero. As I said, I ran the show.

One day in particular we were especially busy saving the world with our made up super-heroes. My friend/sidekick had wheels as feet, and swords as arms. I was really cool as a guy who was as speedy as Flash, my left arm was a really strong vacuum, and my right arm was as strong as Hulk's. So what I would do was suck our enemies with the vacuum, and knock them out with my right arm. Or, I would suck trees, and knock them out with the trees. At the moment I was struck by my arch nemesis, the bee, my sidekick and I were losing ground from the enemies. One enemy pushed me really hard so I started falling backwards waving my arms to try and keep balance, but I unfortunately fell hands first into the arch-nemesis, the bee. He won... I was in excruciating pain. I ran in to plead my case with Teacher, and this is where my soul forming begins.

I told Teacher the whole story, from us creating our super-heroes, to fighting off the villains, and falling to my doom on the bee. To my amazement she didn't believe me!! The woman I called TEACHER didn't believe a word I was saying. To make matters worse, she accused me of trying to catch the bees (I assume she got that idea from the week earlier when we actually were trying to catch bees). I couldn't believe what was happening. I mean, who in their right mind would try and catch bees. It was ludicrous! I reassured her that what she was saying was not the case, however she wouldn't budge. She continued to make her accusation until I would admit defeat. I felt as if I was being tortured, and I had to give in, just to appease the pain. So the unthinkable happened....I gave in. The arm-sucking, Hulk arm, speedy man admitted defeat to an event that never happened. I told her that we were indeed trying to catch bees while the real truth is we were playing super-heroes. I went home that day put-out to say the least.

There is an upside to the story however. The part that I feel was the most soul forming of the entire experience. The "lesson learned," so to speak. When I got home that day I went to my mom and showed her the battle scar that I had received on my right hand ( the Hulk hand). I tried one last time to plead my case, and told her exactly what happened. To my astonishment/relief she believed me! Not only did she believe me, but she felt compassion for me. My mom nurtured me back to health, both physically and spiritually. The down-trodden could now hold his head up high, because of a mother's touch. I learned at that time that my mom was indeed the most caring woman in the world, and I also learned that from that time forward I would be a "Momma's Boy." I love you mom! Happy Mother's Day!