trades

Today, in the car, Dallin was playing with some stupid little toy. I think it was a little motorcycle. Porter saw it and wanted it for himself. He tried to arrange a trade, but he didn't have anything with him so he told Dallin that he would trade his Batman cave for the motorcycle. It would not have been a fair trade. It reminded me of Jacob and Esau, when Esau traded his birthright (something very valuable) for a bowl of pottage (something much less valuable). How often do we (me included) do the same thing; seek instant gratification and place our immediate desires above our most precious things? Some of it must come from from simple ignorance about the value of these important things. Some of it, however, has to be chalked up to a willful decision to forgo the thing(s) that will bring us the greatest joy for the thing(s) that will bring us satisfaction right now. I was also thinking about how important some of these decisions turn out to be (not the Batcave for the motorcycle. Its lasting consequences would be minimal, especially since they both would have forgotten the trade by tomorrow). Obviously, the consequences of Jacob obtaining the birthright were monumental and lasting. The scriptures have a number of similar examples, Judas traded Jesus' life (and Judas' own chance for salvation) for a bag of silver; Lot's wife traded her life for a look at Sodom and Gomorrah, even Lucifer traded his chance to come to earth, obtain a body, and possibly receive exaltation for his pride and anger (his belief that his plan was best and that if he couldn't do things his way, he wouldn't do them all). Most of these things weren't gradual trades but a moment in time that changed everything. How many of them would take back their decision now that they have perspective on what they did?

Okay, that's my deep thought for now, on to more regular things. I took the boys to the pool today. They have been asking to go for a while. It is a small pool and there is not much to do. I spent most of my time sitting on some kind of faucet that dispenses warm water while Porter and Dallin "swam" (for them, swimming is mostly walking. They never go in water over their heads). After swimming, we went for pizza (Dallin had garlic cheese breadsticks) and went to the dollar theater to see The Princess and the Frog. Something broke in the middle of the movie and we ended up waiting for about 45 minutes for it to get fixed. Dallin and Porter spent the time running up and down the aisles with all the other kids who were waiting. All in all, a good day, especially since Pooh didn't pee on anything in the house.