Imagine - You’re a baseball fan. You have season tickets. You wait all season, all your life really, to be the lucky fan to catch a foul ball that pops into the stands. Your day arrives. You had brought your wife and children to the game with you and possibly even secretly hoped today would be the day that you catch that foul ball. You even thought it through enough to know that if it happened, you would hand the ball to your three year old daughter to share your delight with your first born child. It’s your lucky day - You catch a foul ball! what would your reaction be? For one father, this was his reaction:
He hands the ball to his daughter. His daughter throws it back. Ugh! But, what does this dad do? Does he scream or stomp his feet and punch something nearby? No! He hugs his daughter. That’s right. He reaches down and hugs his daughter. Would you have reacted the same?
What an incredible act of love. While we would all like to think we would react the same way, this dad truly shows his heart. He shows that his object of affection is on his daughter, not on that foul ball that he finally caught. He doesn’t think of himself at that moment. He admits that his only concern was that his daughter not think she had done something wrong.
We all watch this video and think of how sweet and how cute it is. But, it really goes deeper than that. It shows the love of a father - The love of a daddy. It also teaches us the impact the love of a daddy can bring on our children.
Had he reacted differently, we would probably think of him in a bad light. We would probably think how selfish his actions were, but deep down we might actually understand. But, this man chose to think of his daughter and her feelings before he thought of his own selfish reaction. He reached down and hugged her. What incredible self-control. What incredible love.
This video demonstrates the perfect reaction of a parent. When our children disappoint us in so many ways, the act of a simple hug can speak volumes more than reacting in a lesser way. On the reverse spectrum, when we take out our frustrations on our children, it impacts them in such a traumatic way. We send them the message that they are not as important as what we desire for the moment. We send them the message that they are a bother, or in the way.
Next time you start to react to a negative moment, stop and think - And, give your kid a hug! You just might watch negative behavior melt away.
