Being Thankful

Ben has been helping at "Thursday Church" for a little over a year. "Thursday Church" is a program that one of the urban Mennonite churches runs for the children of the community. He has been learning about the tough side of life. Things he takes for granted are foreign to some of these children. The other night he was watching me comb the girls' hair and he told them "Girls just be thankful for a mom that combs your hair for you."
This past week they had VBS for this community and afterward one of the boys was singing "On Top of Old Smokey"...(the kids version about spaghetti)...
The kid ended his version with "and then my poor meatball rolled out of the door."

So Ben finished with the last verse:

"It rolled in the garden and under a bush
and then my poor meatball was nothing
but mush!
And then the next summer it grew to a tree
Now there's a meatball for you and for me."

The little boy looked at him "Is that really the last verse?"

Ben said, "Well that's my dad's version."

Little boy, looks at Ben," Did you like it when you had a dad?... Did he hit you and stuff?"

Ben said he was in keep-things-under-control mode and didn't get hit by the question on later.

I wanted to send dad with Ben the next time and let Ben use him for show and tell.