Calvin and Goliath

If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.

Amish Proverb

It was a hot August afternoon when a calf supplier pulled into Joe Weaver’s farm with some calves on board, including two young bulls on their way to the sale barn for beef. Joe and the calf supplier had to spend some time rearranging the cattle trailer to unload the calves. Either a hinge came undone or a door hadn’t been closed tightly—the men aren’t sure which—but one of the young bulls decided he had no interest in going to the sale barn. He broke through the small opening, headed for the road, and trotted up to the neighboring Millers’ farm.

Calvin Miller, age thirteen, spotted the young bull from his barn and tried to chase him back to the Weavers’, but the bull wasn’t intimidated by this skinny reed of a boy. It charged Calvin. Joe watched as the bull bumped and pushed Calvin, then practically trampled him. Joe yelled to get the bull’s attention. Agitated, it turned away from Calvin and started to charge toward Joe.

Calvin rose to his feet and limped into the barn. The calf supplier tried to help Joe coax the bull into a fenced pasture, but the young bull grew increasingly angry. “So our next big idea,” Joe said, “was to stay out of sight until we came up with a better plan.” Once or twice, Joe would cautiously come out in the open, but the bull would charge him. “This was one angry bull! I was just about ready to run back to my farm and grab my shotgun when Calvin slipped out of the barn, calm as could be.”

The bull spotted Calvin and started to charge, but the boy was ready. He threw a stone, hard, to scare it away and hit the bull’s forehead, spot-on. “The stone must have hit that bull at just the right place, because down it went, just like Goliath!” Joe said. At first, Calvin and Joe and the calf supplier remained still, watching. They figured the bull was just knocked out or dazed. “Slowly, we approached the bull and were surprised to find it was dead as a doornail.”

Afterward, folks were congratulating Calvin and slapping him on the back, but he only shrugged it off. “A mad bull on the farm is nothing to joke about.”

Joe felt differently. “Now Calvin has a modern-day David and Goliath tale to tell his children and grandchildren when he grows up.” He smiled a big toothy grin. “All’s well that ends well.”

Road Map: Getting There from Here

Joe not only affirmed Calvin’s bull’s-eye pitching skills, but he likened it to the story of David and Goliath. He put Calvin’s bravery into a wider context than just quick thinking during an emergency on a farm. Don’t be tentative about putting events in your child’s life into a broader context—you and your children have a bookmarked place in God’s story!

Look for practical ways to make the Bible relevant to your children. One Illinois mom writes encouraging Scripture verses on index cards and customizes them by substituting her children’s names. She slips the note into a lunch bag, leaves it on a pillow, or tapes it to the bathroom mirror. When her son was taking the SATs, for example, she wrote out: “We can be confident that what God has started in Tyler’s life, He will certainly finish” (see Phil. 1:6). A Texas dad chose life verses for his two daughters and put them on the computer as screen savers—a credo for each child. Such meditations become a constant reassurance of your family’s true identity.

One boy was told by his mother to get the bath water ready. A tub was set out behind the house in the afternoon with water in it so the sun would warm it and be ready in the evening. Well, sometime during that sunny afternoon the pig found it and got itself a good bath.

—Scribe from Hartshorn, Missouri

Happy moments—praise God. Difficult moments—seek God. Quiet moments—worship God. Painful moments—trust God. Every moment—thank God.

—Scribe from Hadley, Pennsylvania