My son purchased a used swing set for his children. He asked me to go with him Saturday morning to help dig its posts from the ground, disassemble its many parts, and transport it to his yard. As we journeyed an hour north to where the swing was located, my son and I had a pleasant chat about many things. 

When we reached the swing set, my son began to dig around the posts that were anchored in cement. I began to remove the set screws that held the swing components together: swings, monkey bar, hand rings, trapeze bar, and slippery slide. As I moved the slide, angry wasps emerged from underneath and began to buzz around us. Some of the set screws were rusted in place and would not budge. We sprayed these with those “rust-buster” chemicals. My son and I joined forces to wrestle with the set screws, bending our Allen wrenches in the process.

It became obvious that I needed to go purchase some wasp spray and visit Ace Hardware to obtain more wrenches. The folks at Ace Hardware were friendly and helpful. To make a long story short, I ended up making four trips to Ace as we found it necessary to employ increasingly drastic measures in our attempts to remove the stubborn set screws. As we labored in the hot sun, we became sunburned, the wasps persisted, and we concluded that the set screws had become petrified. 

We packed up and headed home without the swing set. My son and I spent a few minutes venting about the five hours we had just “wasted” and then renewed our father-son chat. Later that afternoon, my son called to check on me and to apologize for the misadventure. Almost simultaneously, he and I acknowledged the good conversation we had enjoyed that might otherwise have never occurred. Thus we made another colorful entry into our books of life—the story of our father-son battle with blazing sun, wasps, and rusty set screws.

Invitation: Share an example of your everyday battles that turn into simple victories.

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