Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Deep thoughts with Cole Owen Tharp

When Jenny and I went down to San Antonio recently I got the chance to take my nephew Cole out to the driving range one afternoon. Cole is 3 and 1/2 and a pretty good little golfer, I though he was left handed as he was hitting the balls with my irons that way (right handed clubs) but turns out he just didn't know how to do it.

Anyway he was hitting away and when I pulled out my golf glove he asked if I had an extra one for him. I did and he put it on and it was about 4" too big for all his fingers but he was happy to have one so he could be a "real golfer".
After hitting balls for about 20 minutes he let me know that he had a bathroom emergency that he needed to take care of right away. The range we were at was fairly isolated and there wasn't anyone else there so I told him to go over to the bushes and take care of it. He proceeded to walk about 10 feet away from me and asked if this was OK. I said go for it, he started fumbling around and said he needed to take the glove off. He did and he threw it on the ground near him. He finally got down to business and when I looked back at him he was whizzing on my golf glove. I yelled "Cole you are whizzing on my glove" which startled him and he shook around and proceeded to whiz all over himself. I yelled again "oh man you whizzed all over yourself". He had it all over his shirt and on his shorts, but calmly replied "that's ok unlce giant (his name for me) IT WILL DRY OUT". At the time I thought his statement was hilarious but as I've thought it through (and over thought it no doubt) I've thought how these funny words from the adorable 3 and 1/2 year old are a great analogy on life.

Life is messy: You are going to get some on you through the course of your life no matter how careful you try to be.

It's not always your fault: People will startle you which may cause you to whizz on yourself and you just have to go on and not let it phase you.

In the scriptures it says (and I quote loosely) Do not worry about tomorrow, each day has enough worry's of it's own.
Cole was thinking perfectly clearly when I yelled at him that he had just whizzed on himself. "Don't worry it will dry out" it's not the end of the world when you make a mistake, what's done is done and there is no reason to make a big deal of it. Pick up and move on. Let the mistakes of your past be a lesson for you for next time but don't dwell on it.
It will dry out and although we may have a leftover stain we can use that lesson for future reference and experiences in life.
I've thought about this a lot over the last couple of weeks and although I don't feel like I'm expressing it as clearly as it is in my head, the point is there.
Move on, don't worry, it happened for a reason. Live your life focused on what you can do next not dwelling on your past mistakes.

DON'T WORRY IT WILL DRY OUT!

:)

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