The Good witch, the Bad witch, and the Ugly destruction

Pictured are your average pair of cheap flip-flops from Target.  Regularly priced at $3, I was thankful that I got a whole dollar off when they were on sale for $2.  Either way, they do not belong to me.  They belong to my son or something like that...

Last week, my son came home from Chick-fil-a with his friend wearing these flip-flops and proclaimed with some indignance,"My shoes are TOO small!"  

"Impossible," I replied quickly.  I had actually bought them on purpose to be just slightly big on him.  Yet, still he protested. 

"YOU bought me the wrong size." 

Now, my patience was wearing thin.  You see he does indeed think that he knows everything at his age lately, and though I am known to make mistakes (quite frequently I might add!) I was certain that this was NOT one of those mistakes.  

"LOOK AT THE TAG!!  YOU bought me a size 13! It's true!!"

I was busy doing dishes and not in the mood to argue with him.  "I will look at it later, but I am certain that I bought you a size 2/3.  But, if it makes you feel better I will take a look at them."  

"You will see that YOU are wrong, and I am RIGHT!" 

So, then, the discussion got more intense about his pride AND his attitude.  As I always do I reminded him that Proverbs 16:18 says "Pride goes before DESTRUCTION, a haughty spirit before a fall" and that he needed to check his attitude and tone of voice with me.  When I emphasized the word "destruction" I was sure to do so in the voice of Glinda the good witch from  "The Wizard of Oz." 

OKAY... well, maybe I didn't quite emphasize the word "destruction" in that tone. MAYBE, it was more like one of the OTHER characters from "The Wizard of Oz."  Maybe... 

Well, either way, we had to rush out the door shortly thereafter.  BUT, my son brought up the subject again the following day, and AGAIN full of destructive pride.  I looked at the shoes, and they WERE a size 13/1!  I knew that I had bought a size 2/3, though.  I told him this.  

SUDDENLY, out of NO WHERE my son has a distant memory come back to him.  Distant- like from the day before kind of memory.  

"Um... I think I took someone else's flip-flops at Chick-fil-a.  They were in the cubby at the Chick-fil-a playground.  Yeah, I think that's what happened..." 

The teachable moment continued, and I felt somewhat happy about the result.  Well, not that I now I had to buy him a new pair of flip-flops since his feet were practically hanging off the back of this other pair of identical flip-flops...  I thought though that perhaps he had learned his lesson.  

But, he didn't.  More discussions about things other than flip-flops came about as the days went by showed that I needed to repeat that verse to him.  I tried to be more like Glinda.  Really, I tried.  As I was praying for his heart tonight and pondering how I could best teach him the value of being humble rather than prideful, my youngest 4 year-old boy stumbled into the room.

"I can't find a red crayon, and the book says I need to color this shape red."

"Oh, there's one right on the table." 

"NO!!!  That is NOT a red crayon.  That is VIOLET!" he demanded. There was a foot stomp from him.

So, I began to walk over to a little too triumphantly to show him his error- that this was INDEED a RED crayon.  

The only problem is that it wasn't red.  It was MAGENTA.

"See!  I told you it wasn't red!" was HIS triumphant reply. 

Hmmm.... I guess there is something about leading by example.  "Um, it's not red after all..." was all I could muster.  I guess I will pray for my own heart, too, as I work out my own issues of pride.  ~Michelle