Everyday Moments: Joe

Andrew and I made an agreement months, if not years, ago: when we make a promise to our children, keep it no matter the cost. We want Jasper to be able to trust us wholeheartedly, with no reservations. Jasper's first impressions of God the Father will be based upon his impressions of us; God always keeps His promises to us, and we want to always keep our promises to Jasper.

As a result, we don't make very many promises; we normally say things like, "If we're able to, we will go to the park after lunch. But we'll have to see if it works out or not." Things like that.

Well, I made Jasper a promise today. I actually made him the same promise multiple times this afternoon.

Then I broke it. Then only because of God's gracious reminder, I was able to keep the promise.

The result is we now own a very, very obnoxiously loud and very expensive dog toy.

(After we bought said dog toy, I told Jasper he needed a name. I asked Jasper what he wanted to name him and Jasper said, "poop." I decided on executive veto and gave Jasper the option between "Joe" and "Bob". Jasper chose Joe. The dog toy will be referred to as Joe for simplicity reasons.)

Meet Joe:

So here's the story of Joe:
We were at the store with our dear neighbor Kathy and her son, Sam, when Jasper found a very, very loud dog toy at the store that he instantly fell in love with. He rarely falls in love with toys at stores. Very rarely. But this particular gaudy Joe capture his heart, soul, and mind. It was in the $1.75 bin with tons and tons of the same toy, so I naturally assumed Joe was $1.75. Since Jasper so completely fell in love with gaudy, loud, obnoxious Joe, it kinda melted my heart; I figured that poor Jasper doesn't have any pets or siblings, and he's such an affectionate little guy, so I told Jasper I would buy Joe for him, but he couldn't play with Joe until we got in the car and were going home (Joe was so loud it was making Kathy's son cry). We then shopped for an hour and 15 minutes and Jasper was so, so, so patient. He would look longingly at Joe (I placed Joe far out of his reach in the cart) and then say, "Car. Home. Car. Home." And I would say, "that's right baby. You can play with Joe when we get in the car and are headed home."

And we went through this routine many times.

Well, as I'm sure you've already guessed, Joe cost more than $1.75. A whole lot more. So as we were checking out, I saw the actual price of Joe and my eyes popped out of my head. I told that cashier, "no thanks." and got Jasper a small, plastic, and very silent dinosaur instead which cost about a dollar. Instantly, the Holy Spirit started working on my heart a little bit, but I kept thinking, "There is no way I'm paying that much money for something that's going to drive me crazy. Give me 5 minutes and I'll have Jasper so distracting by dirt or helicopters that he'll completely forget about Joe. Plus, I got him a dinosaur."

Well, I got Jasper loaded up in the car, I got buckled in, started the car, and Jasper started excitedly asking for Joe. Begging for it. With such excitement and hope and anticipation on his face. And that's when it hit me: I was about to break my word to Jasper. The price of the dog toy was totally, ridiculously expensive, but the value of being a mom who keeps her word to the best of her ability is absolutely priceless. It's worth everything in the world.

Thank goodness for the Holy Spirit.

So, I unloaded myself, unloaded Jasper, and not wanting Andrew to have to pay for my "parenting mistake", I unloaded most of what I just purchased. Dragged us all back inside. Returned most of what I just bought to help "counteract" the price of Joe. Walked Jasper back to the farthest corner of the store located somewhere near Siberia, showed him all the "Joe's", let him pick his favorite, bought the Joe, and finally got us home.

We've had Joe for a very short time, yet Jasper has given him countless kisses, countless hugs, literally shoved 3 animal crackers down his throat, got him a cup of water because he was thirsty, checked for his heart beat, felt his feet to see if his feet were cold and needed socks, and tucked him in for a nap. I delight in seeing Jasper's joy for his new Joe, but even more, I delight that the Lord reminded me the importance of keeping my word to Jasper.

If you're quiet and listen, I'm sure you can hear Joe from where you are. He's the loudest thing known to man.

(as a side note, the cashier who did my returns commented on how weird it was the I bought stuff and 1 minute later was returning it. It was a good opportunity to share with her why I was returning it all and the importance of being a parent who keeps her promises.)