Humor

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Paul’s Salt

Paul’s parents were perplexed. Normally, an obedient child, ten year Paul had blatantly disregarded their last request. For some reason unknown to them, he was obsessed with salt. Salt was continuously disappearing at an alarming rate. Not that he was eating it; he was wasting it. Wherever Paul went, he left a salt trail. The yard, driveway and street were speckled with salt. Even the houses around the neighborhood wielded evidence of Paul’s visitation. Then today, the phone call from his school principal was the last straw. Paul had been apprehended salting the school yard and playground.

Discipline was needed. Paul would lose all his privileges for the day. No television, no phone calls, or no friends over to play. Surely that would grab his attention. Paul accepted his punishment without a single word of protest. Instead, he had looked them in the eyes and smiled.

The next day, to their chagrin, Paul was again spotted salting the streets as he walked home from school. His parents came up with a plan to withhold all his allowances until he had paid for all the salt he had taken. Again, Paul offered no resistance to the punishment. Instead, he asked if he could do extra chores to work it off faster.

A few days later, their neighbor woman came over laughing. Paul had offered to take out her trash for one box of salt. Mortified, his parents asked if she had given him the salt. She said she did, but the odd thing was that he scattered the salt through her yard. Embarrassed, his parents apologized to her. When Paul came in that afternoon, he was facing two very irate and angry parents. He was banished to his room for a week with no liberties what so ever. He was even to take his meals in his room. He would be allowed out for bathroom needs only. One of his parents would accompany him to and back from school. Surely, this would override his fixation on salt. Again, Paul offered no opposition or complaint of his punishment. His only request was to have his Bible in his room.

After his week of detention, Paul’s parents were confident that they had succeeded in deterring Paul from the salt. To their exasperation, Paul salted not only their yard, but their driveway too. Salt gleamed off the pavement of their sideway and glittered on their street. It was as if he had doubled his efforts to salt his surroundings.

Unable to fathom what to do, they decided to talk to their pastor about the problem. He told them that he would come up with a plan for the following Sunday.

Sure enough, Sunday morning their minister gave a sermon on the Ten Commandments. He then asked Paul to explain what it meant to honor your parents. Paul gave a beautiful description and illustration. After Paul’s speech, the pastor then spoke about a little boy who wouldn’t obey his parents and was scattering salt all over the town. Hoping to catch him off guard, their preacher then asked Paul if in disobeying his parents if he was not in essence disobeying God.

Paul looked his minister in the eye and said, “But the Bible says to salt the earth”.


Kathleen Ann Shelton

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