Beech Tree News Network

I’m sure you’ve heard the quote, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  I’ve never cared much for that quote.  I guess it’s the kid in me.  Kids don’t care much for that quote either.
    When my niece, Melanie, was about five years old, her mom (my sister, Marsha) and her dad, Ed, decided to take Melanie and her brother, Kyle, out on the farm to cut a Christmas tree.  Ed got the axe, and the little family set off on their journey.  Kyle stayed close to his dad, and Marsha held Melanie’s hand, explaining along the way what fun cutting a Christmas tree would be.  Before they had gotten even a few yards from the house, Melanie started whining about the cold.  By the time they crossed over the first of a few fences that lay on their path, her whining had reached a full-blown wail.  Marsha tried to get her little girl not to focus on her discomfort but rather enjoy all of the wonders of creation that stretched before her.  Melanie would have none of it.  She continued to cry all the way to the tree, during the cutting of the tree, and all the way back to the house with the tree.  Once Melanie reached the front porch of her house, she immediately stopped crying.  She turned to her mother, smiled, and said, “Wasn’t that fun!” which translates into, “Life is a destination.”
    Once, I went shopping with a friend and her two little girls—ages six and three.  We decided we would drive through and get breakfast before we went to the mall.  As we were ordering, the oldest girl told her mother she wanted an ice cream cone.  Her mother told her she couldn’t have an ice cream cone for breakfast, but she could have one on the way home after we finished shopping.
    The little girl was not happy.  She refused to eat what her mother had ordered for her and sat sulking in the back seat of the car.  We arrived at the mall and spent a rather abysmal day of shopping as the oldest daughter pouted and complained and picked on the younger daughter.  The mother seemed oblivious to the behavior, but my nerves were frayed by the end of the day. 
    In keeping with her promise, the mother went through the drive-through on our way home, and bought both girls ice cream cones.  As soon as the ice cream cone was in the oldest girl’s hands, her entire demeanor changed.  She was all smiles.
 I was wrong in my observation that the mother had been oblivious to the little girl’s bad behavior.  When she saw the transformation in her daughter, she said, “You mean, you made the rest of us miserable all day long because you didn’t get ice cream for breakfast!” 
With one swift motion, the mother reached over, snatched the ice cream cone from her daughter’s hand and threw it out the window. 
The Christmas tree incident and the ice cream cone incident happened years ago, but I think about them from time to time.  They come to my mind when I’m not suffering particularly well or when I get upset because I didn’t get something I wanted.  When I give in to the woe-is-me attitude and I start making all those around me miserable, I’ve noticed that God will step in to deal with me.  He grabs the ice cream cone from my hand and pitches it out the window.  Translated, that says, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”