Stuff

The Story
Every teenager dreams of the moment they will walk out the front door and see a new car. Well, when you are from Arkansas…it is a new truck you wait on. I don’t know how he paid for it or anything for that matter, but he always came through when it counted.
Just as sweet as the moment is when you sit in your first car, equally as sour is the moment you wait in the road after your first wreck.
The story is simple. I was traveling home with the windows down and enjoying the idea in my head that every person that passed wanted my truck and if they happened to be female, they sure did think that I looked good in my truck. I was moving towards the light and in the left turn lane. The car in front of me put on their blinker at the same time that I did. However, very quickly, they stopped to turn into the Wendy’s parking lot. I plowed straight into the back of the car.
I got out, making sure that everyone was fine, and they assured me that they were. I waited for the police to come as the man that I had hit began to give me looks that did not equal the grace given to the waitress a couple of chapters earlier. I stood there, we finished, and I went home.
I was very upset. There was minimal damage to my treasure, but I was not sure what the response was going to be when I entered the house. I will never forget what happened next.
As I walked in the house crying and waiting for the verbal lashing, Dad looked me straight in the eyes and said, “It is just a piece of metal son…I am glad that you are ok…we can fix trucks.” Oh the mercy. I deserved a verbal beating or at least I thought I needed one. Although is was an accident, I had been a bit careless. Nevertheless, it was mercy and a teaching moment for Dad.
To make matter worse, the lady in the back seat began experiencing “back pain.” The price they would sue a 16-year-old boy for would be the damages physical and emotional plus all my future earnings. That’s right, all my future earnings. Remember, this is just a few weeks into my new found freedom.
I was in the hallway when he called the family to inform of the situation. I told him that the ambulance had not been called to the scene and the woman walked away. She also reported to the police officer that she was fine. I felt awefull.
I had to answer a few sporadic questions here and there, but Dad did not hang the accident over my head while he was going through the legal stuff.
It was the complete opposite of what i was expecting. I thought the world was going to come to and end. He very quickly put into perspective that we were talking about a piece of metal. Yes I had made a mistake but the lesson was more important than the truck.

The Lesson
Now don’t get me wrong, we were very strict on the way we took care of our trucks. If we missed an oil change or negelected to wash it, Dad was the first to be all over us. This story is not about irresponsibility and how with stuff that is ok. There probably couldn’t be anything futher from the truth than the previous statement.
The point is, people are more important than our posessions. For some parents I have seen that is not the case at all. Growing up, the message I learned was, “yes we must take care of our things and be thankful that we have them, but they are not and never will be the most important things in our life.”
I had a life group leader that worked for me a couple of years ago. She has a very bad accident. She called me to come help because the wreck was around the corner from the church. When I got there, she asked to borrow my phone. She called her dad in tears. She begain to cry even more when he never asked if she was ok. He thought is would be a good time to lecture her about how she always drove to fast and was irresponsible. Those two things may have been true, but the timing was horrific. When she hung up the phone, she looked at me and said, “He has always cared more about this car than me.”

The Word.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 5:21

The Application
You can say that your son or daughter are the most important thing the world. You can say it to them until you are blue in the face. However, what you communicate with your actions is what they really hear. What do you spend you time working on? What do you spend your time thinking about? What is your most prized posession? Does you son or daughter know they are more important than the answer that filled in those blanks?
Good news, if you have teenagers, you don’t have to wait long for them to mess something up! We all know that most of them are bulls in china cabinets. My advice...see the whole picture. Maybe it is time to teach your child that they are more important than any posession you own.