I know it’s not technically the weekend yet, but since I’m not working today and hopefully you aren’t either, let’s call it even. So here’s another trip down the parental discipline highway…

A few nights ago, we had some friends over for a BBQ. One of those friends was Sydney, Joshua’s red-headed girl buddy. As Sydney was getting ready to leave, she politely said good-bye to Joshua. Now my son has this habit right now of not responding when people say things he doesn’t like, as if by not saying “good-bye, Sydney” would mean that she wouldn’t leave.

Trying to help him live in reality, I told him, “Buddy, can you tell Sydney thanks for coming to play?”

Nothing.

“Joshua, tell Sydney good-bye and thanks for coming.”

Nothing.

I kick into father-mode and move Joshua to his bedroom to have a chat about disobedience, but also about friendship in general. I wanted to explain to him the nature of friendship, how you can be Christ-like to others, and how you can be a representation of God’s love to other people when you make choices to love as He first loved you. Either that, or I wanted him to be polite and say good-bye. So the conversation was like this:

“Joshua, I want to talk to you about being a good friend. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Who is a good friend of yours?”

“Emma.” (Emma lives down the street, is a year older than Joshua, and is super-cool.)

“Emma is a good friend. Don’t you like being with her?”

“Yes.”

“What makes Emma such a good friend?”

“She has pretty hair.”

“That’s true, buddy, she does. But what makes her a good friend?”

“She has pretty dresses, too.”

“Okay. Do you want to watch ‘Gideon: Tuba Warrior’ before bed?”

“Yep.”