We were sitting in a restaurant.
Myself, my wife, my 17 year old daughter,
and my 12 year old son.
The waiter was a young fellow, maybe 19.
He came to the table and began asking us one by one
if we needed a refill on our drinks.
To me, "Would you like more tea sir?"
To my wife, "More tea miss?"
To my daughter, "More Dr. Pepper miss?"
To my son, "More coke sir?"
Needless to say I was impressed with the young man's manners
and had immediately decided he would get a good tip.
I guess what caught me most was the simple fact
he even said sir to my 12 year old.
My 12 year old responded about like he always does. "Um, no".
He didn't say, 'no thank you' or 'no sir',
nothing to indicate good manners.
Now my son is a nice kid,
but this lack of politeness has always been a problem for him.
What makes it worse is his sister is very polite!
We were at another restaurant the other day when
He sneezed, just as a waiter was going by.
The waiter answered, "God bless you".
My son said, "ok".
I thought, 'Where are your manners son?'
We've tried everything.
When he was little we bought a series of books
on manners, "The Burnstien Bears Book of Manners",
or something like that.
We tried reminding him, punishment, reasoning.
Well you can see the results.
"Um ok" is pretty good for him.
Mind you, he's a really nice kid,
he just doesn't seem to understand the importance of manners.
God answers in peculiar ways.
The other day I was talking with some co-workers.
The conversation somehow got around to disciplining kids.
I mentioned how my mother would always tell me
"be good" before I went out.
It took 30 years but eventually it stuck.
One of the ladies I was talking with mentioned how her mother
would always say, "manners will take you place a dollar won't".
Flash! There it was! That young man at the restaurant,
manners opened the door for him to receive a better tip!
I knew immediately this is what my son needs to hear.
"Manners opens doors". Yeah that works on two levels!
I just pray he's a faster learner than I was with my mother's "be good"!
![[pulsating cross]](astar2.gif)
