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This is something I wrote to my 4-year-old cousin Cheyanne
when I was 30 years old. I have edited it and placed
it in this newsletter for the lesson that we as adults can
learn from her.
Cheyanne,
If we stay as good of friends as we are now, I know you
will read this one day. You said something in the
car that made me think. I asked you if you were
looking forward to preschool starting.
'No!'
'Cheyanne, why not? Don't you want to meet some
friends and have some kids at your birthday party?
All you know is adults.'
'I don't want friends at school. I want friends at
McDonald's!'
It brought our conversation to an abrupt halt.
Because, Cheyanne, I am a 30-year-old man and sometimes I
don't want friends at school either. I also want
friends at McDonald's.
There have been times in my life when I chased the
McDonald's friends. To this day, women from
McDonald's still cause my head to turn. Sometimes I
let the happy meal distract me, instead of the delayed
gratification of the degree.
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Sometimes friends from
McDonald's seem fun and carefree and friends from school
seem boring.
Of course, these are metaphors and I am not talking about
fast food or degrees. Cheyanne, it is the same at 4
as it is 30. Human nature tells us that we need what
is on the other side, the forbidden, or what doesn't take
much effort. Human nature tells us that what takes
work and moves slower can't be fun. But that is
wrong.
Life is no Happy Meal. It isn't instant
gratification. It takes the discipline of school but
the reward is so much more than a chocolate sundae and a
Hamburglar slide.
Cheyanne, I hope that you want the friends it is initially
hard to want. I pray that you want the friends who
will be there when the Happy Meal is over and who will
walk with you towards faithfulness, self-control, success,
hope, hard work, goal-setting, focus, self-discipline,
honesty, integrity and love.
I don't claim to be a wise man, a poet or a saint.
But my heart beats as loud as thunder for the things that
I believe and I believe to my core that delayed
gratification is the hardest thing to teach –- yet one
of life’s most important lessons.
I love you very much Cheyanne. I have 26 years on
you and I struggle with the same thing. However,
whom you surround yourself with will determine the outcome
of your life. Make the choices VERY carefully.
You have to live with the choices you make.
Your Favorite Cousin,
Ronnie
* * * * *
Reproduced with
permission from the Ron White Ezine. Visit
him at ronwhitetraining.com.
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