Nails in the Posts

(Consequences)

One of my favorite stories from Grandpa Gayle was something I heard him preach when I was a kid. Maybe you heard it.  He told the story of a boy, Johnny, who had become out of control, unruly, and disrespectful. It was bad. They lived on a farm on the highway, and at the entrance, it had one of those rail post entrances, where it had a post on each side and a post over the top with some antler horns on it.

Johnny would get in trouble at school, and church, and everywhere he went.

He was an embarrassing spectacle.  The parents loved God, and would spank him, ground him, and yell at him. They did everything they knew to get him to behave, but Johnny kept getting worse and worse, and the parents were worried for him.

Finally, the dad cried out to God, and God showed him something to do, which was crazy, but that’s what God does sometimes. The dad took Johnny and said, 

“Son, I’m not going to spank you or ground you anymore for your behavior. Going forward, every time you disobey I’m going to drive a spike nail into our front entry posts.”

“The deal is you will have to explain to anyone who asks what those nails in the posts mean.”

Johnny agreed to the terms. He couldn’t believe how he lucked out!  He could do whatever he wanted with no more spankings or grounding!  For the next 2 weeks he amped up his game, and was more horrible than ever.  The parents couldn’t take it anymore. They thought they missed God, and were really questioning the deal they made with Johnny.  

Meanwhile, the front rail entrance posts had started to fill up like a porcupine, and people in town noticed.  They all started asking, and Johnny had to explain that each time he did something wrong or disobeyed, he got a spike nail. Soon, Johnny was super embarrassed and felt badly. 

Johnny came to his dad and repented for being such an out-of-control kid.

He asked his dad if there was anything he could do to get the spike nails out.  The dad loved on him and told him that when he was caught doing good, they would pull a spike out together.  It took a while, but the son eventually got all the nails out.