Zombies in the Park

It was a dark and stormy night, er, um day. The wind whistled through the swing set and made the cheeks of the children red and the noses run. The clouds a thousand miles away were herding in like a bunch of cows hurdling to get to the site for rain (but they really don't have much to do with us at this point--but it sounds exciting, right?).

The kids were running around doing their rigorous vitamin D absorbing moves like running up and down the toys, laughing, playing tag, arguing with their mothers about the need for sweaters, and the like. All of the sudden an unsuspecting person was assailed by none other than----(ominous music)------A ZOMBIE!

Moments later R ran to his mother in a fit of tears, hurt pride, a hurt side, and utter anguish.

Turns out an 8-year-old zombie and his little sister zombie invited R to be a zombie. He accented and the boy zombie immediately set up doing the power-ranger bad guy routine of knee-kicks and punching. Then R ran to me and I tried to patch up the torn trust of random kid-strangers at the park. Zombies can be such a kill-joy.

Being a mother of a non-zombie I figured I had better go and confront the zombie boy. Personally I would rather NOT confront people--as I tend to dislike intensely (notice I did not use the harsh word "hate") any sort of confrontation. The boy zombie was standing by the daddy zombie pushing a baby zombie in the swings.

I could have been livid, but I find that livid-ity doesn't work well for me--I lose my ability to think straight.

T and I strolled over (he was in the carriage) and I began, "Um, I think your son has been hitting people on the playground."

The dad took over, "What?! I told you that if you were hitting people at the park we would have to leave." Dad and boy zombie have a short, unresolving (to me) apology session (to R, whom he didn't even look at). The girl zombie apologized more sincerely to my friend's boy. The boy zombie insisted she use the word "apologize" in her sentence. What is a zombie to do?

Somehow I did not feel that the issue was resolved, so I added to the boy zombie, "They would like to play with you, just not games that involve hitting."

He incredulously responded, "But I don't even know them."

Of course, didn't I know that all children walk up to complete stranger children and start hitting them? Where have I been? That last part was me being sarcastic.

In reality I see how our Heavenly Father's children should love each other and determine to be good, loving and kind to one another. Like R, when we've been hurt it is nice to run back to the Lord and pour our souls out to him and to feel the loving solace and peace that comes through the Spirit. Also to be quick to forgive. The minute the boy apologized R forgave him quickly went and played for the rest of the two minutes we stayed after the apology. Quick forgiveness can give us peace of mind, greater love for our fellow men, and lower blood pressure. Isn't it amazing how everything can relate back to the Gospel?!?