This was an amazing story to me because McDonald's was a luxury was rarely promised in my house growing up. We experienced it as a spontaneous surprise, perhaps (and, actually, Uncle David somehow had an impressive "Happy Meal Toy Collection" growing up), but I feel like it was a rare experience.
Somewhat reluctantly, I recall, Brother Schwartzberg made a stop at McDonald's to make good on his promise.
I'm trying to remember the exact gospel connection here. I'm sure it was something about how our Heavenly Father makes good on his promises. Maybe Matthew 7:9–11?
Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Whatever the case, I think we should all be impressed that I was paying enough attention during sacrament meeting to recall any details thirty years later.
That being said, I have made a couple of promises over the years that have been obligated to fulfill recently. And while I don't mind fulfilling my promises, sometimes I do need a little reminding about promises I've made. And I think sometimes parents feel reluctant to fulfill their promises because sometimes they set those conditions to put off having to do spend either money or time that they don't quite feel like they have at the moment...but it doesn't mean they feel any more solvent at the day of reckoning. I believe that was the case in the McDonald's story.
Anyway, it made me chuckle to myself when my kids reminded me about my promises using the exact same language Jade's father mentioned in his talk: "But you promised that when ______ then _______!"
The first promise was that when Miriam's feet stopped growing then we'd buy her an official pair of organ shoes. We've been buying her men's latin dancing shoes the last few years because they're cheaper than organ shoes. But her feet haven't grown for quite some time...so we determined that they stopped growing and she put "organ shoes" on her Christmas list. We said we'd order them...but a number of roadblocks got in our way and...let's just say that her organ shoes finally arrived on Tuesday of last week.
She's very excited about them.
The second promise was that when Alexander graduated from Junior Barracudas to the competition team then I'd get him a personalized swim towel. And then the kid went and graduated from Juniors practically the very next week and I was like, "No, wait! I meant like next year not next week!" But then he got pneumonia, anyway, and ordering a towel fell by the wayside.
And then I forgot to order him a towel for his birthday (as I had done for Zoë and Benjamin last year) because his birthday falls outside of pool season so it simply wasn't on my mind. And I forgot to order a towel at Christmas (again because pool accessories aren't forefront in my mind in December). So he still didn't have a towel at the beginning of pool season, but that was okay because swim team hadn't started yet and...so I put it off a little while longer...and...
Alexander reminded me of my promise shortly before the first swim meet of the year (on Thursday last week) and I was like, "Wow. That's right. I can't make that happen by Thursday...but I can make it happen."
So we finally sat down today, put together a towel for him, and hit the order button...and it should arrive well before his last swim meet.
Anyway, I think I'm all up to date with my promises...maybe...
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