Beyond the Checkered Flag

There are many issues that my husband and I never imagined ourselves experiencing before we had our children, and one of those was that of NASCAR.  Second Son LOVES anything NASCAR.  He enjoys watching football and hockey with my husband and First Son, but his heart is really with NASCAR.

We should have known that he would be a NASCAR fan.  He has always loved anything that is fast.  Speedy Gonzalez is his favorite cartoon character and whenever I need to light a fire under him to get a chore done quickly, I scream out, "Arriba! Arriba!  Andale!  Andale!"  That gets him into gear better than anything.

Since he was two or three, he also loved making growling tiger noises.  (I am comparing this to the growling sound that a race car makes.  LoL)

He also has spent countless hours playing with his Hotwheels.  He lines them up, organizes them by color, number, size....you name it, he has thought of some way to organize them and display their speed.

I was at our local Christian bookstore last night and came across a DVD titled, Beyond the Checkered Flag: Champions of Racing.  They had Volumes 1,2 and 4 for 50% off.  Each DVD features three or four racers who share what Christ means to them in their day-to-day, and racing lives.  Darrell Waltrip is on Volume 1, and he shares a story from the time right after he became a Christian.

He was settled back in his recliner on a Saturday afternoon watching T.V. and drinking a beer when he looked out the window and saw his pastor and two of the deacons walking up his walkway for a visit.  As quickly as he could, he ditched the beer and grabbed a Pepsi.  When everyone was seated in the den with their own Pepsi's, his pastor broke the news that he was concerned that Darrell needed to take some bigger steps to show his newfound faith, including stopping driving the Budweiser car.  Darrell said he fussed and argued over that one, so his pastor said, "All right then.  We'll just have to pray you out of it."  He did.  Before Darrell knew it, he was driving the Tide Detergent car.  He said, "That preacher literally helped me clean up my act!" 

And who says that God doesn't have a sense of humor?????