PSP and spirituality

Brother has a couple interesting personality traits. He constantly has to have something to be looking forward to. He also feels the need to spend $ as soon as he has collected enough to buy the things vital to his happiness. He has been rotating between about 5 different needs -- depending upon who he has been hanging out with. The list includes: a Specialized (brand) mountain bike, a dog, remote controlled gas powered vehicles, the latest video game systems, and legos. Usually he gets locked onto one, and can't stop thinking about it for a few days. He follows me around the house, telling me about the research he has done: the cost, the features, what he could do with it, and the pros and cons of the coveted item. (This will come in handy if he is a research assistant in college some day!) Then, the novelty dies off and he moves on to a new subject. Usually I can stall and evade his requests to go shopping until the more onerous items have blown over. However, with his last paper route paycheck deposit, he couldn’t stand waiting any longer. The money was burning a hole in his pocket. His current interest was a PSP video game console. It is a small, hand held thing that is all the rage. Last time he wanted one he was dissuaded from buying it because there were no games that met our criteria of no violence, swearing, etc. Unfortunately, now there are some that are acceptable. So Friday, he finally earned the right to buy one. (I had made a huge list of things he had to do before I would drive him to the store.) Anyway. He got it and has been in one of the degrees of boy heaven all weekend. The picture shows him sharing with a neighboor kid on the back porch on Sat. One other boy brought over his PSP and they were having a gaming convention. Today, (Sunday) it was off limits. He thought he’d die, and so began bargaining with me to see how far he had to go in order to get to play it. All the kids know I love a good bartering session – a trait I acquired from my semester in Israel during college. I told him if he’d memorize the first chapter in the Book of Mormon, or the Doctrine and Covenants he could play it. He got me down to a half a chapter, and a 5 item Sabbath type “to do” list. (I didn’t think he’d really do it.) Surprisingly he accepted the deal. Surprisingly he did it. It took him a few hours. He’d do a couple verses, then go do something else on his list, then come back to the scriptures. I figured that all the memorizing would counteract the brain numbing effects of the video games, and that the spiritual boost would offset the light-minded content. Luckily, he only got to play for about an hour before it was time for dinner, scriptures and bed. I’m looking forward to next week when he can memorize the second half of the chapter. I wonder how far he will get before the novelty wears off. The funniest part is that his siblings had to listen to him practicing for the whole time. Peachy and KayBee got to the point where they would correct him when he messed up. So, happily it is stuck in their heads also! This could be the start of a good Sunday activity tradition!