Dude Perfect.

Last night I took the boys to Dude Perfect with some of their friends.

It's a show they enjoy watching on YouTube where a bunch of 'dudes' perform trick shots and pull off unbelievable and nearly impossible stunts and challenges. Obviously with enough attempts almost anything is possible, so I was wondering how they would bring their talents into an arena of 8,000 people to wow people in real time.

It did not disappoint.

Let me rephrase that...

I was not disappointed by the reaction of my boys to the performance.  I wasn't particularly captivated, but I was moved by how my sons and their friends were moved.  Their joy brings me joy.  Seeing them watch intently, smile with a permagrin that just won't fade, laugh from their belly, and turn to each other with noises of awe and shock to share in the moment...well, that doesn't have a price tag.

It was especially surprising--a pleasant surprise kind of surprising--to hear them finish the show with an invitation to stick around to hear them share about their faith and their love for Jesus.  My guess is that 3/4 of the crowd stayed to hear what they had to say.  The five guys came out, sat on stools and openly shared the gospel and invited others into salvation.  

You. Just. Don't. See. That. Anymore.

I think the thing I loved most about it is what I call "value reinforcement". 

To be somewhere with people that my boys idolize and to have them boldly declare virtues and values that align with my own, well, that's priceless.  In fact, on the way home I was thinking I would have spent hundreds of dollars a ticket for those 5 minutes of testimony coming from the likes of Dude Perfect.  It normalized something that I think my boys wonder about.  I think they might increasingly question if our family is a little abnormal and surmising that cool people don't have our standards or belief system, so to have powerhouses like that bring the cookies down to the bottom shelf and to put themselves out there like that, that's serious reinforcement.  I could tell Caleb and Joshua listened to their every word and it was creating neural pathways deep in their brain tissue and spiritual pathways in their heart tissue.

What a moment.

Parenting is a combination of tons of tiny moments that are maximized.  Little actions with massive con"sequences".  And these sequences lead to a consequential life.

God, keep Fathering my son's hearts as I father them with you.