There were people. Everywhere.
The sky was dark.
The fluorescent lights were bright.
And hot.
Jordan had been standing there…
In front of everyone..
For much longer than he expected.
He was starting to get dizzy.
That’s when it happened.
He peed his pants.
In fairness to Jordan…
He was only six years old.
On the mound of the t-ball field.
In the local Little League championship game.
His little legs got warmer and warmer.
His pants, wetter and wetter.
It was the last inning –– and his team was about to win.
(But it didn’t feel like a moment worth celebrating to him)
It was a moment of panic.
Was ruined.
But he *also* didn’t want to draw attention to himself.
There’s no way anyone can see from here, right?
He was scared.
And there was only one person he could think about…
His mom.
She’ll know what to do,
Jordan ran to his mom.
She gave him a BIG hug.
(And she must’ve felt what happened)
Because she didn’t let go.
She just hugged him –– and hugged him some more –– never letting anyone else see his humiliation.
Before the teams could shake hands…
Or the trophies could be handed out…
She whisked him away to the car, drove him home and changed him into clean baseball pants.
No one ever knew.
When Jordan showed up at the pizza place for the post-game celebration, there were a few questions.
What happened?!
Everyone knows… he thought.
But his mom, like a pro, played it cool.
And saved the day again.
Without telling a lie.
She told everyone…
“Ya know… they were on the field for so long… he wasn’t feeling well… so we took him home for a few minutes… but he’s feeling better now.”
She was his hero.
Jordan joined the party and his tiny teammates to celebrate over pizza and arcade games.
That day?
It was one of his worst five minutes.
But it was also one of the best days of his little life.
Because, up until this point, this story was a tightly-kept secret between Jordan and his mom.
But, being a dad himself and changing his fair share of wet cartoon underwear over the years (pronounced “undah-weahrs” by our own kids), he felt like his mom finally needed to get credit for her quick-thinking –– and being the hero she was that night.
There’s also another reason.
Whenever someone says they had a “bad day,” Jon Acuff (one of our favorite authors and podcasters) asks this:
“Was it a bad day?…
Or was it a bad five minutes that you thought about all day?”
We love that quote and remind ourselves of it all the time, because it’s so easy to let one bad THING “ruin” the whole day.
Whether you freeze up during a posing set at a portrait session…
Or a wedding you’re shooting gets behind schedule and the light isn’t as good as it could’ve been…
Or you realize your camera settings weren’t right, or a client was late, or you didn’t get a booking you were hoping for…
If you have a tough moment at work…
Of you lose it with your kids…
We’d encourage you to…
PAUSE.
And ask yourself.
Is this a bad day? Or did I have a bad five minutes?
Almost always, it instantly changes our perspective.
We hope it does the same for you.
