A Day at Silver Dollar City City

So I went to Silver Dollar City (SDC) with the family yesterday after DJ’s basketball trophy presentation. It was a beautiful day to go to SDC. It is December and still in the 60’s. Unfortunately, I was not
the only one who had the idea to go. The traffic there was insane and so were the lines. And I do mean insane!

What normally takes me 45 minutes to drive took 2 ½ hours. We did have some great family conversation on the way there, though. DJ practiced his songs for the upcoming Christmas concert at Praise Assembly. We sat in crazy lines of traffic, though. I have learned to just laugh and realize that there is nothing I can do about it but get mad or be glad. I have learned to be glad, mostly.

Others have not been so fortunate. I saw a truck from Louisiana with several bumper stickers on it that contained Bible verses and said Christ Saves flipping people off after rolling down his window. I also
saw people cutting others off, running red lights and driving on the shoulder. Traffic definitely brings out the worst in people.

Thankfully I was with family and enjoying myself. Then we got to SDC and it was just as crazy. I fully believe that is the busiest I have ever seen it. We headed straight to the Powder Keg, which is a roller
coaster that shoots you out and accelerates you from 0 - 53  in 2.8 seconds. My son got to sit in the very front for the first time. He loved it. I loved what I saw while we were standing in line.

There were two teenage girls standing in front of us and a young girl (4-6) and her dad behind us. The girl we will talk about was wearing a Christian tshirt and a sock monkey hat.. She and her friend were
talking and the little girl started talking to her dad about the sock monkey hat. Her dad told her to tell the girl she liked her hat. She took a couple of steps forward and nervously said, “I really like your
hat. I have a lot of sock monkey stuff at home.”

The teenager took off her hat, handed it to the little girl and told her she could keep it. “I have another one at home.” The dad offered money, which was refused. What a cool thing to see. It even impressed
my son. “Wow, dad. I can’t believe she just gave her that hat. She was really nice.” They boarded and the father commented to me how nice it was to see a teenager being that nice. “It is really rare anymore.”

We rode the roller coaster, ate, played in the kid’s area, watched the Frosty the Snowman show then stood in line awaiting the parade. As we were waiting I saw the guy in front of me was wearing a Celebrate Recovery backpack. I told him I liked his backpack and we proceeded to have a conversation. He was from Little Rock where he was in CR, had seven years in recovery, and professed to CR savin g his marriage and his life.

Next he introduced me to his CR pastor, who was there with him.  I shared a two minute synopsis of my story with them. We watched the parade, shook hands and acknowledged how nice it was to meet each
other and went about our merry way. It took us forever to get out, and my mind kept recalling the two people I had the pleasure of meeting over the course of the day.

As we were leaving my son saw the teenage girl again. He said, “Daddy, there is that big girl that was really nice and gave that little girl her hat. I want to do that when I get bigger.” Positive example was
downloaded into my son’s brain and I didn’t even have to set it. So thankful for some of the single serving people that come into our lives.

In closing, I had a fun day that was made even better by people representing what they wore. There was also another reminding me that if we profess it we better represent it, even if traffic sucks. How many people are drawn to Christ when we do good deeds and repelled when we are mean. Whether we see them or not, people are impacted by the things you do, be they good or bad!