Grandson’s Motive Obliterates Bad Behavior (A Story about Picking Daffodils)

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Last Updated on October 7, 2024 by Bill Truby

This story about Bill and Joann’s grandson teaches the importance of considering the “why” when you look at a person’s behavior. Joann went from anger to an intense feeling of love when a motive was considered.

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Video Transcript

I want to tell you about how the squirrels ate all of the daffodil bulbs. My wife Joann and Amy, our daughter-in-law, spent hours planting daffodil bulbs, and it was beautiful. When they came up, the whole front area of our house had beautiful daffodils, yellow and white. It was gorgeous, but it didn’t take long for the squirrels to dig them up and take them away for food, I suppose, because over the next year and the next year and the next year, there were less and less daffodils that would come up.

The daffodils became very precious. And they had a meaning to Joann about her and our daughter-in-law spending time together. And they were beautiful. But it turned out that there were only three left in this one given year—three, one yellow and two white. And they were precious, and they were gorgeous. But only three.

Well, our grandson Jayden was with us, and he was like three years old, a precious young boy, just darling. And we had such a beautiful, intimate relationship with our little Jayden. And then, one day, he and I were out in the front yard. I went into the garage. I was away from him for a moment, and Joann looked out the window and saw that he was picking the white daffodil. She was upset. She ran to the door, and about that time, Jayden ran up to the door as well.

She opened the door, and he handed her this beautiful white daffodil and said, “Grandma Jojo, I picked a flower for you, I love you.” Obviously, Joann melted, and it completely changed how she looked at the situation.

My dad taught me years and years ago when I was a little boy, he said, “Billy, always look at a person’s motives, not their behavior, because you don’t know what’s really going on until you know why they’re doing it.” Well, that lesson was just plastered on Joann’s mind at that moment. She recognized that Jayden was doing an act of love, and she loved that act of love far more than she loved the look of this beautiful flower in the front yard.

I think this is a good lesson for all of us as we look at the people around us. Don’t necessarily focus only on the behavior. Figure out why somebody is doing it. There may be an act of love embedded in that behavior.

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