The Plan

My daughter (pictured) turns 14 today. She recently acquired her first boyfriend and just broke up with him this past weekend. No hearts broken, it was just a distance thing, and they're both still friends. But I think Mom and I are breathing easier. She's still a little young for that sort of relationship, at least in our minds.

But you know, it's not *my* birthday that makes me feel old, it's my kid's birthdays. (Can I get an "Amen"?)

By the way, she got her cell phone back at the end of July. (For those of you who remember the story of her $1,500 bill.) She's in ninth grade, she's on the swim team, she sings with a community choir, she goes to the youth group at our church, she struggles through her homework every night ... so, all things considered, her life is full and life goes on here.

Thanks for letting me share some of it with you every day.

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A young man went into a drug store one day and purchased three boxes of chocolates: a one pound box of plain chocolates, a three pound box of assorted chocolates, and a five pound box of deluxe candies.

Curious, the druggist asked the boy why he needed all that chocolate.

"I have a date tonight," the young man explained, "with a girl I've been wanting to see for months. I'm going to her house for dinner and, after dinner, we'll stroll through the garden in her backyard. If she lets me sit in the swing with her and put my arm around her, I'll give her the one pound box. If she lets me kiss her, I'll give her the three pound box. And if she kisses me back a few more times, I'll give her the deluxe five pound box!"

The druggist agrees his plan is ingenious, and wishes him well.

That night when the boy arrived for dinner and the family sat down, the girl's father asked him to say a prayer over the meal. The young man prayed and prayed and prayed until finally his date had to elbow him in the side to get him to stop.

Later, as they sat on the swing in the backyard, she said, "I didn't know you were so religious."

To which he replied, "And I didn't know your Daddy was the druggist!"

[AndyChap's The_Funnies via Keith Todd's Sermon Fodder]

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WONDER for YOUR WEEK: If you ate equal amounts of white chocolate and dark chocolate, could you call that a balanced diet?

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