I had four sunshine yellow pillows staring me in the face. On one hand they begged to add some cheer to a lonely sofa, on the other hand, with an accusing eye, they crossed their arms and sternly demanded to be returned.
When I purchased the sectional for a client, the saleslady asked if I wanted to take the decorative pillows with me instead of having them on the delivery truck. She stamped “taken” on my receipt and I left with pillows in hand.
But the next week the truck was early, I was late, and of course they left four more pillows. Pfft!
Feeling guilty for entertaining the thought of keeping the pillows, two weeks later I traipsed back down to the store and explained the glitch to the sales manager. By the shocked look on his face, you’d have thought I had handed him a suitcase full of free money.
I took them to the loading dock as directed and received the same stunned response. I got the impression they thought no one in their right mind would have returned the orphaned pillows.
A few years ago a comedy hit the theaters starring Ricky Gervais. “The Invention of Lying” unfolded with a flat broke, and down-on-his-luck guy, who found out the benefits of lying in a society who only knew truth. Lying simply didn’t exist.
Statements like, “That dress makes you look fat” or “I hate your haircut” or “It’s not me, it’s you,” were commonplace.
But after the discovery of his ability to lie, Gervais finds a bit of dishonesty goes a long way. In a flash he becomes rich and famous by embellishing every story (and why not?), creating the world’s first “fictional” movie (a runaway hit), and telling the bank clerk he has a large amount of money in his account to withdraw from. Of course the teller never checks his balance, because why would she…? She doesn’t even know what a lie is.
And in the end he gets the girl of his dreams. So what is the moral to this story? I think the writers would like us to take a relaxed view of lying. A little dishonesty never hurt anyone right?
But the slippery slope remains the same. One lie in word or action easily leads to the next and off we go…Society says it’s no big deal to, “Cheat on the test” “Take that fluffy hotel towel,” or not tell the “whole” story. One blogger said his roommate cheated on every test in college, and to get the “perfect” job, he lied about everything, from titles held to projects overseen–and he saw nothing wrong with it.
Notice there is not an “honor” system with anything anymore? My mother-in-law shopped at a tiny “Mom and Pop” grocery store for years. They let her just sign the receipt and go on her merry way. Once a month she would get a bill in the mail. The first time I went with her, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people never paid their bill.
Dishonesty remains so prevalent, so expected in our society, that sadly it’s astounding when someone shows honesty. We all are flawed, with good days and not-so-great days, but that’s not the point. And believe me, Satan whispered in my ear several times, “It’s too much trouble to drive thirty minutes to return a few pillows. It was their mistake. No one would ever know.”
But I did and God did.
And that’s all that really matters.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Luke 16:10
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-List dishonesty that you see around you in society today, or write about a specific example, positive or negative, that happened to you.
-Write a vow to be honest. Pray about it.