Derek's Water

I once knew a boy who didn’t like water. Well he liked to play in water and play with water, but he didn’t like to drink it. This boy’s name was Derek. Now Derek like most boys loved to have fun so when his parents asked him if he wanted to go to summer camp he couldn’t resist. Derek’s brother had been before. Derek’s brother had told him about riding horses, shooting arrows, driving go-carts, tubing and so many more fun things he couldn’t even remember them all. There was no way Derek was going to miss out on camp.

When he arrived on Sunday after a drive that seemed to take forever he could not wait to make friends and do all those fun things his brother talked about. First though he had to follow his mom while she filled out boring adult papers. Once she was done with that though Derek took his stuff up to his cabin then he went to the pool to swim.

Derek loves to swim. If Derek could only choose one thing to do it would probably be swimming. So he had no problem with this camp so far, in fact he thought this camp was pretty sweet. Well after swimming they got to eat pizza, which was awesome, and then they played some dodge ball. Now dodge ball is another story but will save that for another time.

To conclude Derek’s first evening at camp they had Campfire. Now Derek was quite confused by the term Campfire because you see there was no fire at Campfire. Soon after it began though he had so much fun he completely forgot about the lack of fire, and if you were to ask him now he would think it absurd that you would assume there be a fire at Campfire.

The next day Derek woke up quite early and it seemed like he would never get to do activities, but after breakfast and morning worship they began. Wow, to Derek it seemed like all his dreams came true. He got to do Arch-go, Jet-ski, Nature, Tubing, and Swimming. It was like he dreamed the perfect day and it became true.

However there was one problem. Derek loves to play in water but, he doesn’t like to drink it. At dinner that evening he didn’t feel like drinking any water and he wasn’t going to. Then his counselor told him of the cabin rule; “You must drink two glasses of water before eating or drinking anything else.” This was a problem for Derek. See Derek was used to getting things his way. He did what he wanted to and he didn’t do what he didn’t want to do.

This began a battle of wills Derek’s decision to not drink his water and his counselor’s to make sure he did. Derek sat through the whole meal without touching a thing; he just sat there with his head on the table. Then he sat there while his cabin played at recreation. This was tough for Derek but he felt that soon his counselor would break. Only he did not realize that his counselor had a tag team partner. Just as recreation ended and it was about time to go to Campfire Derek’s counselor did the unexpected. He called in the Assistant Director. Derek knew that Campfire was hard to resist and that his counselor couldn’t last much longer. What he hadn’t thought of was this, a replacement fresh off the bench. Derek wasn’t sure he could take this new player, but he would do his best.

It had now been three hours since supper started and Derek could feel himself fading fast. The Assistant Director was trying to get Derek to talk about other things, things Derek was interested in. The Assistant Director was attempting to make Derek his friend, Derek knew this wasn’t good. Before he knew it he found himself playing “Eenie, Meanie, Miney, Mow” to decide which glass of water to drink first. He knew he was giving in but what else could he do? Then as he was deciding which glass to drink the Assistant Director started narrating what he was doing in a funny voice. Derek knew he was going down fast now.

He started drinking the first glass sip by sip trying to make it take as long as possible. When he was about halfway done with the first glass and he knew he didn’t have much resisting left in him. The worst possible thing happened, the Camp Director appeared and Derek knew it was over. The Director came and began to talk to Derek along with the Assistant Director. Derek gave in. They were so fun and nice he just couldn’t take it anymore. He gulped down the rest of the first glass and the second. Then he was so defeated he even agreed to drink his water for the rest of the week.

Derek had given in. He didn’t feel too bad though, because man these guys were good. Plus even though they won he still got to do all the fun activities. He had a feeling this week was going to be even more fun than he anticipated. He resolved to continue to be good and see just how much fun he could have.

Just like Derek, sometimes we decide we are not going to drink our water. Not because we can’t or because it’s not good for us; no we decide not to drink it just because we don’t want to. We want to do what we want, when we want. Sometimes we choose not to do something we were going to do just because someone told us to do it. God has placed people in our lives to help remind us of who he has created us to be and who we should be. Refusing to do something just because someone wants us to do it isn’t a good reason. We should be who God wants us to be and do what God wants us to do, because it’s the right thing to do. If we choose to follow God’s will then we will see just how fun it can be and we will want to keep doing it!