Daddy, do you have the time?

Daddy, do you have the time?

A touching parable.

Anonymous

The man came home late again, tired and ir­ritated, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door.

"Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied the man. "Daddy, how much money do you make in an hour?"

"That's none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?" the man asked angrily

"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" pleaded the little boy.

"If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."

"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he asked, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00, please?"

The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march  yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you're being so selfish. I work long, hard hours every day and don't have time for such child­ish games."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions in order to get some money!

After an hour or so, the man calmed down and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something the boy really needed to buy with that $10.00. Besides, he didn't ask for money very often.

The man went to the little boy's room and opened the door.

 "Are you asleep, Son?" he asked.

"No, Daddy, I'm awake,” replied the son.

"I've been thinking. Maybe I was too hard on you earlier," said the man. "It's been a long day, and I took my frustration out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for." The little boy sat straight up, beam­ing. "Oh, thank you, Daddy!" he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some crum­pled bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then he looked up at his dad.

"Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied. "Daddy, I have $20.00 now

Can I buy an hour of your time?"