When my daughter was three years of age, I took her to Fazzoli's for lunch, kids eat free,

and they gave her this helium-filled balloon with a little string, tied it to her wrist,

and man, all day she played with this thing, loved this thing, and so much so that night when she went to bed,

she said, Dad, will you tie this to my nightstand? I said, absolutely. So I grabbed the balloon,

and as I'm pulling it towards her nightstand, it rubs up against the textured ceiling and explodes. It pops. And immediately, man, her eyes filled up with tears. Her little bottom lip came out, and I was the big jerk who caused all that sadness. And so I did what any of you would do. I scooped her up. I put her in the minivan, drove her straight to Toys R Us, and she picked out this play kitchen, had pots and pans and fake food and utensils. And I go to bed that night, and Allison said, what are you been up to? And I said, well, this free balloon from Fizzoli's cost me $150. That's what I've been up to.

Wouldn't change it. I've got a buddy who is one of four boys in the family and the three

oldest boys dared the youngest brother on Christmas morning to eat a glass Christmas ornament.

And he did. Wonderful digestive experience, I'm sure. Very next day, they dared another

brother to drink lighter fluid. And he did. Next day, the oldest brother in the family got

hit in the head with a two by four that had a nail sticking out of it. So just picture this mom

for a moment, okay? She makes three trips to the emergency room on three separate days with three different sons, okay?

This just validates what Scott and I've been teaching from this stage, which is boys are feral, okay?

And my favorite statement on parenting is from PJ O'Rourke, who once said everybody knows how to

raise children except the people who have them.

And a truer statement has never, ever been spoken.

If you have your Bible with you today, please open it to Genesis 25, Genesis 25.

Those of you that picked up a blue Bible on your way in, you're going to be able to follow

along on page 12.

But let me set the stage for a conversation this way.

The elephant in the room that we need to stare down, that we need to confront as adults,

is the craziness that a family can generate, more specifically,

the chaos that can ensue in the individual life if we don't deal with it.

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