The 11 yr old and 6 yr ran into the bathroom as I got ready for the concert last week.  The little one held tight to something as the big one did his best to pry it out of his hand.  While they struggled over the hidden object they tried to convince each other that whatever it was belonged to them first.  They were more worked up than they had been in a long time.  The arguments in our house never get physical but this one looked like it could only end in a knock out.  Still putting on my mascara I extended my left hand and motioned to them to give me what ever it was they were fighting over.  It was a rock.  A little round rock.  ”This, this is what you’re fighting about?”  They both burst out in defense of their cause, the rock obviously belonged to each of them and the other had stolen it!  Already late for the concert and not in the mood to deal with it, I put the rock in my pocket and told them to separate and go pray and see what God thought about the rock.  Honestly I wasn’t exercising some great parenting act, I really just wanted them out of the bathroom.

I enjoyed about five minutes of silence when Joshua, the six year old walked into the room.  ”Mom, I talked to God about the rock” he said.  

“Ok, what did he say?” I asked.  

“He don’t care about the rock, he says it’s just a rock” he answered.  He then told me he didn’t need the rock any more and I could just give it to Kaleb.

-–Let me interject right here, to Joshua there is no such thing as “just a rock”

A few minutes later Kaleb, the 11yr old entered.  ”Mom, I talked to God about the rock”

“Yes?”

” The Lord says it’s just a rock and it doesn’t matter, He says that a brother’s love is stronger than a rock” Kaleb proclaimed.

Joshua walked in at the end of Kaleb’s statement and they both hugged and asked each other for forgiveness.  I asked them what I should do with the rock, they said I could throw it out they didn’t care, then Joshua said maybe I should give it to Riker since he too appreciates a good rock.  Kaleb then said maybe we should put it in a shadow box and write on the glass: “A brother’s love is stronger than a rock”.  Joshua liked this idea and so it was agreed upon.  They both left happy with the situation.

Later as we were leaving the house Joshua said, “Mom, when you’re old and you go to heaven and we’re all trying to decide what to do with your stuff, if we start fighting about who gets what, we can say: Wait; It’s all just rocks!”

Later at the concert I shared the story with a friend, he looked at the rock and said yeh it looks like a rock but really its a thingy-ma-jig (ok I don’t remember exactly what he called it)  He said that at Valero they put the thingy-ma-jigs in the whats-a-callit (yeah don’t remember that either) and they spin around and eventually turn round and smooth and wait for it…radioactive.  Ok, I’m not sure if that’s true or not but I did at that time decide not to carry it in my pocket.  Later when telling someone else the story they told me the same thing.  Now I’m kind of wondering, it’s not like anyone had time to get together and say hey lets tell Jami she has a radioactive rock… To top it off we bought the house from someone who used to work at Valero.

Still not sure I’m buying but we’re now officially calling it the radio active rock.  So this story had two points.

One- My kids are pretty awesome

Two- If there is a radioactive rock in the back yard my boys will find it.