Being a tomboy, I didn’t ask for similar Christmas presents as my girlfriends did. For example, when I was eleven years old, most of them asked for clothes or record albums. Not me. I asked for a set of darts.
My mom was surprised when I asked for them, but my dad was so excited. When I opened it on Christmas Eve, he immediately sat the dart board against an end table. It was the traditional board with concrete rings and it had a bullseye. It’s the small red dot in the middle of the rings. My dad did very well on our first game in that he got a couple of bullseyes. As for me, most of mine landed in the carpet or bounced off the board. Bless his heart, he tried to help me. First, he showed me how to aim the dart. I tried and it didn’t work. It was as if the dart had a mind of its own. Then he showed me how to throw with enough force so that the dart stuck in the board. That didn’t go as expected. While I did throw with the right amount of force, my darts still missed the board. But they did stay lodged in my mom’s end table.
Next, my dad hung the dartboard up in the basementWhen my darts missed the board, they slammed into the block wall. He said that was dulling the points of the darts so much that they wouldn’t be able to stick into the board. So, when the weather warmed up, my dad hung my board onto a wooden pole in my grandparents’ carport. That way, if I missed, the darts would sail out into the yard. There was one problem with this location: the three-foot-tall block carport walls. Yep, my aiming was so bad that some of my darts flew beneath the board and into that wall. So, did I ever hit the bullseye? I think I did a time or two, but it wasn’t because I aimed for it. Seriously, it was by pure chance.
At this same time, I began to realize that the bullseye wasn’t the only thing I kept missing. A good example of this happened in school after that Christmas. That’s when I got caught whispering during quiet time. Fortunately for me and my class, we had a teacher who was very creative with his discipline. My punishment was to write each state and its capital fifty times and have it done in a couple of days. On top of that, I had to find those on my own. Since there was no Goggle back in the 70s, I had to use the Encyclopedias to look up each one. Talk about a pain. After I finally finished, I turned in the pages of states and their capitals. After he took them, he asked me what was the capital of Nebraska. I shrugged and answered: “I don’t know.” My teacher furrowed his eyebrows and said: “What do you mean you don’t know? You just wrote it 50 times.” That’s when I realized I had missed the whole point of what he was trying to do. You see, he wasn’t just disciplining me, but to also teach me something at the same time.
“And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:17 (KJV)
This is one of my favorite stories in the bible. I like to envision what it was like to suddenly see that Heavenly army. Have you ever wondered what else is out there for us to see? I’m not just talking about the spiritual realm. I think there’s many chances for ministry around us everyday that we completely miss. For example, we may not be noticing how some are hurting and need our help. They may need somebody to simply care or invite them to church. So, pray and ask The Lord to open your eyes to what He needs you to see.
To this day, I continue this tradition of missing the point of things. My family and friends know this very well. Through the years when something momentous happened or was said, one of them would ask me: “Did you get that?” While this may irritate some people, it doesn’t bother me in the least. Wait, let me tweak that. I’m good as long as they don’t ask me: “What’s the capital of Nebraska?” By the way, it’s Lincoln.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.