The latter part of my day had some challenges. It started in the 5 o'clock hour. I was parking one of our company vans in my driveway, like I do most nights. Unfortunately, I was doing a 3 point turn in limited space with a more cars than normal parked on the street. Another unfortunate thins was the fact that I had a cell phone stuck in my ear at the time. This was perfect combination for one distracted Dave. So the final unfortunate was when I backed into the Nissan X-Erra parked across the street. Alarms came and went. No one came out to check on it. After knocking on a few doors to find the owner I called the office and our insurance company to report it. After doing so I left an envelope with a note of explanation, cell number, insurance info, and the claim number. I've got to tell you, I have an awesome wife. Marcia was out there within minutes taking digital photos of the damage.

The next step was an hour or so of phone calls, an email to our team about saftey (let's all learn from my bad example, please!), and a report for our company records. I was kind of feeling like a butt head for doing it. I didn't have to be on the phone. I rembered a driver's ed teacher from 10th grade saying something about mose accidents happening within a mile of home. Ok so that was closed for the night. It wound being an experience of humility and doing what's right. (You should have heard the insurance rep. talk about how many hit and run claims they get).

The capstone of the night was getting caught up on the happenings at home. Marcia told me about David lying to her about where he'd been and why he was so late coming home from school. I won't go into the gory details, but I can honestly tell you that Marcia and I had one of the single most powerful times we've ever had with one of our children. It got very intense as we confronted in love. Our son is really going an identity crisis. He is unsure about who he is. His shakey foundation is showing itself in several ways. One of the things we decided was to cut a friend out of his life for a while, perhaps indefinitely. That remains to be seen. We called David to a higher standard, one that he's meant to live in. A rule of goodness, courage, and truth. Thank God, he responded well. You could see the point when his heart really opened up.

Not coincidentally, yesterday night David asked me if we could do something together, just the two of us this weekend. As I stand here before God, there is no more important thing for me to do this weekend. We're thinking of going for a Saturday hike in the Marin Headlands. There is a battle going on inside of David. Days like this aren't easy. But, I refuse to stop hoping, confronting, loving, and disciplining. A boy is being formed into a man through all of this.