Invitation Declined
From Bad Beginnings to Happy Endings, by Ed Young (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 1994), p. 29.
Several years ago I was invited to the White House to meet with a few key religious leaders and the President of the United States. NOW that was a pretty good offer, wasn't it? It was the first invitation from a president this old country boy from Mississippi had ever received. I'd been out of town during the first part of the week and between flights I called home to check in. When I did, I learned that my son Ben's basketball game originally scheduled for mid-week had been re-scheduled for the end of the week&md;and I'd missed one game already!
The question was one of simple priority: "What's the most important thing to me?" Since the government had been running pretty well without me for a number of years, I called the White House and said, "Ed Young won't be coming." (They recovered from this news beautifully.) Instead I went to the game and had the fun of seeing my son shoot the winning basket. I have to confess that deciding between the White House and the school gym was not too tough. My wife and my boys are my highest priority.
