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Tuesday, September 27, 2005
One essential office tool for any small business is the shredder. A cross-shredder is the best and one that can eat DVD/CD’s and credit cards is preferred. Well I have such a beast and it is an awesome piece of work and I love it. From time to time, I let the kids help me shred all my White Water documents, er, advertisements and credit card applications.
Tonight, I had only one item to shred and I gave it to Katelyn to feed into the black housing of the metal teeth of death. Joshua was very excited when he heard the gears go and the paper get shredded and quickly grabbed the first thing he saw on my desk. Before I finished yelling, “JOSHUA!!” it was but confetti for a New Years Day parade. I couldn’t believe it, he had just shredded a $135 check.
Me being me, I freaked out and was yelling, “How could you do that?!” to my poor two-year-old son. He was stricken with fear because his beloved daddy was acting like a stupid brute and if it wasn’t for his sweet mommy to come rescue him, I would have driven him to complete tears.
After Liz helped me regain my sense and point out he is, you know, two, I was able to hold him and apologize. We talked about what happened and we then were up and laughing within a few seconds. Everything was fine…but not fixed. I still had a shredded check. 
I made the call to the customer and asked if I could ask them an embarrassing question and they said, cautiously, sure. When I requested they cut (no pun intended) another check due to my sons handy work, they pleasantly laughed and said sure. Twenty minutes later, I had a new check.
Why I lost it, I don’t know. That was stupid. My son is way more worth then $135 and I should have just realized that he did it only because he was sooo excited to join in on the fun. I killed that fun instead of just going, “Ooh Joshua! You just shredded daddy’s pay you silly boy!” We would have all laughed and I still would have got a replacement check.
Ugh. Learn from my mistake people. It’s not worth upsetting your precious little child for a stupid check.
September 28th, 2005 at 16:50
You’re not alone bro. I’ve unfortunately lost my cool for far lesser offenses (crayon on the rug, etc.). May the Lord help us to keep a far more Christ-centered perspective especially when our kids do dopey things.
September 28th, 2005 at 16:57
Thanks, bro. I fully agree with you, we are the example of Christ to our kids and we need His help to keep us focused!
September 28th, 2005 at 17:27
Agreed. Though what I meant in particular was that to go berzerk over things of little import is to, in effect, exalt those things above Christ and His glory. And to exalt our petty concerns (including money) above Christ and His glory. And in so doing, we fail to magnify the glory of Christ. Here’s another way to respond:
Child:
Parent: What?! Oh no. Child, do you know what you just did?
Child:
Parent: You just shredded a meaningless piece of paper. Meaningless not because it’s absolutely worthless. Or because it’s replaceable. But because compared to the all-surpassing worth of Christ, it’s worth nothing. And I could get angry, except that I treasure Christ — and desire to show His worth to you — so I won’t get angry. May Christ become such a treasure to you so that you can not even blink at the loss of earthly riches.
Okay, maybe that’s not exactly the script I’d follow. But you get the idea. =-)