An Old Friend

I came across and old friend last night in the grocery store (no, really, an OLD friend: he’s my age).  Brother Phil and his dear wife were a treat to see!  Phil told his wife, “We’d better be careful what we say or we might end up in a story on facebook.”  How insightful, Brother Phil.  Phil and I taught school together in 1980.  I taught junior high and he taught sixth grade.  I remember the last day of school that year.  Two of Phil’s students thought they would pull a prank on their teacher.  After all, it was the last day of school.  What could he do to them?  They used a pen to let the air out of the tires on Phil’ car.  But Phil kept his cool.  He didn’t get mad, he just got even.  Phil borrowed my bicycle pump and had the boys pump up his tires with that little hand pump!  It took them thirty minutes to pump the tires back up.  Good for you, Brother Phil, a very fitting punishment!  Proverbs 22:15 says that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child …”  but Mr. Phil found a painless way to get the foolishness out of them.  Well, … not all of it.