The Five-dollar bike and a Christ-like Attitude

There it was, faded purple and looking like it had been left out in the weather for a couple of years. Six-speed and a chain that has more rust than and old Chevy, the chain was off the sprocket in the front and jammed between the sprocket and the frame in the back. For a bike, it certainly looks like it was rode hard and never put up. On the seat of that bike the sticker said five-dollars. My wife called me over and with a whisper can you fix it? My first reaction, pay me five and I will haul it off to the heap, but I tabled that, thought about it, and said yeah, I think so.

You see where we are right now the kids have not been able to ride bikes so, one of the kids has never had a bike, and two of the remaining three have outgrown the ones they have. So any way, we find this bike and looking to my oldest son and ask him well do you want it? Yeah, I would love to have it! Son, I said, it is a bit of a mess but I think I can get it to where you can ride it. That would be great, he rather happily responded.

My wife pays the clerk the five plus tax and we loaded up the bike and we are off. Once we get home, I begin undoing the mangled chain, and begin to put some lubricant on all the metal and working parts, this thing was soaking the liquid up like a sponge that had spent an eternity in the desert. I mean the more I put on the more it soaked up. I finally got the chain unstuck and straightened out the chain guard and finally get the chain to stop jumping off the sprocket. Then, on to getting the rear brakes un-jammed, now they are working, in all this my son is very patient and being a good helper.

After about an hour and a half I get the bike on the ground with two inflated tires and a son grinning from ear to ear. After two or three trips around the house in the grass my son stops his “new” bike and says thanks dad for my “new” bike I sure am lucky to have such a nice bike. I am glad that God made it so I could have this nice bike.

My friends this is a nine-year-old boy who gets it. Here is a kid that is thankful for an old junky bike that most kids today would never ride and this kid is showing it off to the neighbor boys and telling them just how great his new bike is. I heard him telling one boy, I know it is old and it has a lot of rust but I sure am thankful to have it.

At supper tonight, I told him how proud I was of his attitude I praised him for a very Christ-like attitude. My wife and I told him how most kids today would not like it very much if their parents brought home a bike like that. I told him how they might not be as grateful as he is, dad he said, this morning I did not have a bike I could ride, but thanks to God now I do.

I have been greatly inspired by my nine-year-old son today and I am writing this as a testimony of his heart. Many of today’s youth would consider this bike to be a piece of junk, that they would never ride, but to my dear boy, it is the finest bike ever made.

I want to leave you with this thought, when we drive that not so nice car, or wear that slightly worn shoe or maybe even live in that not so fancy home, can we stand before God and man as this kid with his five-dollar bike and his Christ-like attitude?


Today my son represented each of these passages below and I too am thankful, I am thankful to God for a growing young man who gets it!

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13, NASB95)

"Rejoice always;" (1 Thessalonians 5:16, NASB95)

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4, NASB95)

"as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things." (2 Corinthians 6:10, NASB95)