I LOVE to tell the story about the man who asked his wife what she’d like for her birthday.

It was one of those significant birthdays, one with a nothing at the end. Of course she said: “Nothing”

Every guy will tell you that if you take your dearest at her word and nothing is given, you are in trouble. So he persisted and eventually she gave her answer: “I’d love to be 10 again.”

Of course such a wish was impossible but he was up for the challenge and decided to try to recreate all the wonders of a child’s tenth birthday.

So, on the morning of her birthday, he got her up bright and early and off they went to Alton Towers.

What a day! He put her on every ride in the park. Five hours later she staggered out of the park, her head reeling, her stomach heaving. Off they went to a McDonald’s for a Big Mac.

On the way back home they stopped off to see Star Wars with hot dogs and popcorn. Finally she arrived back home, wobbled up the pathway, staggered up the stairs and collapsed into bed.

He leaned over and lovingly asked, “Well, dear, what was it like being 10 again?”

One eye opened. “You clown,” she said. “When I said 10, I didn’t mean my age - I meant my dress size.”

Well, that poor fellow got it wrong, but who among us wouldn’t like to be a child again at least for a bit? Time slips away so quickly.

St Paul once wrote: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”

Of course some never do grow up.

What is the difference between a child and an adult? Surely one of them is that children are focused mainly on their own needs, especially at the early stages of life. If they don’t get what they want, they scream.

Maybe life should be the process of weaning us from focusing on our own needs to focusing on the needs of others? Maybe from self to service?

If there is any truth in that assertion; then again... some just never grow up.