I'd be willing to bet that I'm not the only parent whose kiddos at some point in their childhood took something that didn't belong to them. I'd also be willing to bet that I'm not the only parent who made their children return the stolen items and apologize. And I'd further be willing to bet that I'm not the only parent who is now the parent of three happy and successful young adults ... that's right, not one of my three ended up in prison for stealing. They did, however, completely believe they would never be able to live down the shame that befell them when they had to march back with tears streaming down their little faces and say, "I'm sorry I took the (teddy bear, fire truck, hair curlers)," ... I'll leave it up to you to figure out which kid took which item. Though Matt, Brad and Meghann might beg to differ, I'm relatively certain that the embarrassment they suffered when I made them return the items taught each of them a very valuable lesson about making things right when you've done something wrong.
Yesterday was one of those days when the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to get dressed and leave my house. I hate it when those kinds of days hit on the same days when I have no choice but to get my butt out of bed or off the couch because I have places to go and things to do. And yesterday, as luck would have it, my final stop of the day was Walmart ... nothing like shopping to make an already grouchy Terrie even grouchier. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I walked through the door and headed toward my car thinking that I'd be home in 15 minutes and wouldn't have to leave again until this morning. And then I saw the police cars ... three of them ... parked right behind my car. My first thought was, "Uh-oh, what did I do wrong?" ... of course that was my first thought ... even when I know I haven't done anything wrong, I still assume that I have but that's another post for another time.
It turned out that it was the car parked next to mine that the police were interested in ... apparently another shopper had watched a guy load up his backpack with a bunch of merchandise, take it to his car and head back inside the store for more. He called the police and by the time I got to my car, the police were asking him to describe the man he saw. One of the policemen asked me if I recalled if the car was there when I arrived, and he chuckled when I told him I had looked for my keys for a half-hour that morning before I realized they were in my pocket. I had absolutely no idea if the car was there when I parked or not, and since I hadn't seen the thief, they moved their police cars and allowed me to leave.
Now here's the thing ... the incident at Walmart yesterday has made me think a great deal about the way people steal from one another every day. A person teases someone about their appearance and robs them of their self-esteem. A person tells a child they aren't smart and steals their will to learn. A person betrays someone's confidence and takes away their ability to trust. A person judges someone unfairly and rips away their dignity. We steal each other's joy ... we steal each other's peace of mind ... we steal each other's self-confidence ... we steal each other's hope.
You know what I think, friends? I think maybe we're the ones who should be arrested ... maybe we should be the ones given life in prison ... maybe we're the ones who commit the greatest crime of all.
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