I see a young boy laying on his bed crying, feeling unloved and alone.  Looking over him I see his tears stop as he falls asleep.  No one came in to see how he was doing or even to comfort his tender broken heart. Moments before, his dad asked the 7-year-old to investigate the condition of the briquets underneath the rotisserie chicken slowly turning above. He was inexperienced in understanding what his dad was asking of him. The boy walked through the kitchen down the stairs to exit the house.  Going out the back door he went down steps to where the barbecue was doing its magic.  The boy put his hand over the charcoal and decided the heat coming from the briquettes weren’t throwing off enough heat.

In the past he watched how his dad put charcoal lighting fluid on the briquettes to get the heating process started. Instead of going back into the house to report what the boy discovered, the boy took the lighter fluid container squeezing a stream of lighter fluid onto the briquettes and on the chicken. As this was happening dad stepped out the back door in time to see lighter fluid spreading over the coals and the chicken. Bursting into an authoritative rage he picked up his son, holding him up off the ground while striking the boys bottom with stinging and painful force. After putting the boy down, his dad said, “you go to bed now, there will be no dinner for you tonight!”  Crying due to the physical pain of the blistering strokes of his father’s hand, he walked up the stairs, through the kitchen and passed through living room where his grandparents were sitting on the couch. They looked at him crying while saying nothing to the boy.  He went into the bedroom to lay on his bed.

Watching this boy cry himself to sleep, something else was taking place in this boys heart.  Alone and unattended to, a seed of fear and distrust were painfully rooted within his heart. Soon he would understand a survival tool guided by an internal pressure of hope finding love by pleasing others through being good enough.