There for a while, my kids in certain age, particularly my middle daughter, when we would

go to a restaurant, I wasn't paying attention, they'd be like, what can we get to add, and

I'd say something like, oh, whatever, whatever you want, you can have whatever you want.

She'd always be like, well, then I'll have a pony, dang it, you'll rat, turn my own words

against me.

I mean, they're going to be super embarrassed in front of these Burger King employees, where

I'm going to get you a pony.

Ultimately, I decided not to get her a pony as I felt like what she was doing was a technicality,

and I like the money for a pony or the real estate for a pony, but it was clever.

And I got to give her that.

It's a risky thing saying that you can have whatever you want, phrase, but it's not a mistake

that just I have made.

I mean, heck, kings in ages past have overstated what other people can have, making big grand

innovations about the massive depths of their resources and how eager they are to share

it.

And in Esther chapter 5, after Esther comes in and tames the beast and receives an audience

with a king who hasn't asked for her for quite some time, the king opens with just such

a warm invitation, which is awesome because Esther does actually need something from him,

but as we talked about yesterday, Esther is resisting the impulse to coolate man the

situation and instead doing this shrewd, coy, cunning, almost playful teasing out of what

it is that she's actually here to request.

And we get the impression the Xerxes is kind of having fun with this.

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