Thou Shalt Not Steal

Think about this for a moment. Have you ever stolen anything? Are you willing to 'fess up? How did you feel? What made you do it? Any lessons learned? How do you feel about theft? Write about this . . . This writing exercise will help you focus on some of your feelings.

I can't remember how old I was the one time I stole something. I was in elementary school at West Elementary in Levelland, Texas. I must have been about eight. On that walk to and from school I had to pass a little store. Several of us from the neighborhood walked together. I surely don't remember why I walked into that store, I do know it wasn't a normal part of the routine.

Just inside the door of that store I saw an alluring display of lemons. Piled high. Shiny. Smelling like sunshine. My mouth watered and my jaws clenched at the thought of how a lemon would taste. Next to the lemons a stack of miniature boxes of salt made the coupling complete. The tiny blue box of Morton's salt with the little girl holding her umbrella looked like the larger one at home. After all, what's a lemon without salt?

I must have grabbed that lemon and box of salt and stuffed them under my shirt. I don't remember.

I do know I didn't get caught. I do know that when I bit into that lemon it didn't taste like sunshine. It was really sour. It was even bitter. It was awful. I threw it in a garbage bin somewhere along the route home. Guilt overpowered me. I felt ill. I knew stealing was bad. I feared that the Hand of the Lord was going to come right from the Heaven's and punish me.

I never stole anything again.

Care to share in the comments about your thoughts.