My little “brother” Shady is an odd bird for sure. Sometimes Mamaw will come in and say bedtime prayers with us, she will call all of us together. She calls us to her room, and will have us all kneel together and say a prayer. We each say a little prayer, and then go back to our own rooms and go to sleep.

This night wasn’t any different, except for what Shady prayed. I knew he had been doing this by himself, because I could hear him down the hall, but Mamaw heard him do it this time. This is how HIS prayer went;

“Dear Lord, thank you for another good time today and for biscuits and gravy for dinner. Thanks for my dog, and for my toys and could you please get me a tank? I want to drive it, with a helmet and glasses that see at night. Amen.”

Mamaw and me finished our prayers, and then she asked (thinking it was a toy tank since he mentioned toys). “Boy what kind of tank are you praying for? An old fashioned Army tank for your Army men?” she asked.

“No Mamaw, I want a real tank because I want to drive it all around here, and shoot it and knock down the old trees in the back. Because I want to be a real Army man too, and I need a tank, I just do.” He answered that question in all seriousness.

Now Mamaw likes to consider things to see if its a real request, or something ignorant, and she was starting to know this was an ignorant request, but I could see her thinking and she was probably about to give us both a lesson. I was totally right on that one; she started asking Shady questions, and giving him reasons and making him say reasons back to her.

“Well I declare boy! That is a lot of most holy faith you are showing, but I have one question before we go on and go to bed; where you a-planning to park it?” she asked, a bit concerned.

“Maybe in the barn, Mamaw?” Shady replied hesitantly, wondering if he was in trouble. He wasn’t of course. Mamaw went on; “If you gonna pray in this here Army tank, you need to see first if the sheriff’s department will even allow that. Plus you gonna have to put gas and oil in it, and you have to work on the motor and keep it full of oil. All that’s gonna cost money. Then you gonna have to have an ammunition dump, that’s a place to keep all those tank bullets, since you plan to shoot it.”

Shadys eyes got a little big, but he let Mamaw keep talking. “Then you gonna have to have a tank crew, and you gonna have to pay them, because one man can’t run a tank. You going to have to go to Camp Shelby, like a man and ask them if you allowed to shoot it at the range, since I can’t have you a-shooting up my trees, and hitting the neighbors. Also, you gonna have to go to basic Army training, and you ain’t old enough physically, or mature enough, in the eyes of God and everybody else here, to be fooling around with a real honest-to-goodness Army tank.”

Shady started seeing the light, as Mamaw kept talking; “Then you will have to get training to shoot it, and you gonna have to learn to iron and starch them uniforms, and you gonna have to learn to polish boots, make an Army bed perfect and all that military jazz. And I can’t even get you to make your own bed most times.”

“You will have to give up Mamaw’s biscuits and gravy, and eat Army food all the time, and tote around a big ole field bag on your back, a big ole backpack that ways a hundred pounds and run with it for five miles straight! Go ask your uncle what that’s like, and I will bet you change your mind. Sometimes son, we want stuff that we have no business having, praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Mamaw finished him off, “So you might just want to play with your toy tanks and Army men awhile longer, before praying for a real one. Be careful praying, God just might give you what you ask for, because He will sometimes do that. But we often pray ignorant and ask for something, and then we have to grow up into it, and it turns out it ain’t good for us. See what Mamaw means?”

Shady answered, “Yes ma’am, I think I get it, but I sure wish I had one sometimes.” Mamaw replied, “I understand, but you need to pretend them Army men, and tanks and such for awhile longer while you growing up. Pretend is fun, and that’s why the Good Lord lets you do it. You can get in some practice while you a-growing up still, but you don’t have the real responsibility. You might not even want to be a tank driving Army dude when you grow up.”

I think Mamaw made her point slam right home, with me AND Shady.