Dad’s Big Lesson from Kindergarten Project

Written by Troy

It was 2 days before my little girl’s 100^th day of kindergarten, and her project was to glue 100 pieces of pasta on a cute little bunny she drew. I was nearby in my home office but wasn’t aware that she was carefully prepping and placing every piece of pasta noodle exactly on the bunny where she wanted it without gluing any of them down. Well, as one might expect, she bumped her drawing and the pasta easily scattered. Her cry was of great loss. Something you might hear dramatically screamed in an English accent after an epic movie moment. Within seconds, mom and I came rushing around the corner anticipating a bloody scene.  But no… just scattered pasta.  Our adrenalin was already gushing and my fast beating heart pounded in my ears.  I saw the situation and I felt angry at first.

“Why are you crying!?”

“Daddy – I worked so hard, and now it’s wrecked!”

I calmed myself down and then her mother and I went on to explain to her that this thing was bound to happen.  It was a bad idea to do it without gluing them down.  She couldn’t understand… she repeated over and over how much time she spent placing each noodle exactly where she wanted it. 

I said, “Honey, it was a bad idea from the start.  I can’t watch you every moment to let you know when you are investing your energy into something that is a bad idea.” I went on to spend about ten minutes trying to calm her down enough to get her to hear that sentence in a way she could comprehend it. I was determined to teach her that just because we invest a lot of time in something and no one stops us from doing it doesn’t mean it’s a worthy investment.

When I went back to my office I couldn’t help but sit there for a while and go through the list of things in this world that we all spend a lot of time chasing that in all actuality might be poor investments…and the world’s message is not one that wants to stop us. In fact, it is screaming the opposite…more money, cars, homes, a nicer deck, a camper, etc. But, no one stops us. It hasn’t worked out for one person in the entire history of the world since God created it. It was my little girls “100^th day of school” project, but the lesson was mine to grasp.