It's so easy just to lie a little, cheat a little, steal a little....after all who are we hurting...

Last week our favorite family-owned convenience store had to start requiring customers to prepay for gasoline. They wanted to avoid it, and lasted longer than most stations did, but over the course of just a few days they lost over $500 from gasoline theft. Now, I've heard it before: "the oil companies are rolling in money at the same time we are rolling pennies just to be able to afford gas; they can stand a little loss here and there." I'll tell you who got hurt - not the oil company. You see this little business pays for it's gasoline as it's delivered, so the big oil company already had their money. The store owners, hard working average people like ourselves, got hurt.

A while back my son came to ask me a question about smoking and tell me about an incident that happened. During his "confession" he told me that a neighbor's dad had made a comment that made them, he and his friend, want to think about smoking. A little white lie - to keep himself out of trouble - who was it going to hurt? The man's wife is who was hurt when I told her what was said to me; and the man, himself when he found out he'd been lied about.

Talking to an acquaintence in the grocery store about how tough times were getting with prices going up and wages staying the same, she said, "You know, since you are on disability you could get help from the state." She's on assistance from the state. "No," I replied. "My husband makes too much money. Things are really tight, but I think we'll make it." "But you could just declare your disability income and say he's not living with you." Cheat the state? Claim I was worse off that I was in order to get welfare benefits? Is that what SHE is doing? It sounds easy and I know people who have done it - and after all it's the state, who does it really hurt? It hurts every single legitimate welfare family by spreading resources thinner than they should be, by eating up money that could go to helping families by having to investigate and prosecute cheaters.

Now, I'm not perfect. I've had my share of temptations and downfalls; it's just easier to talk about things others have done. And now to the point of the whole thing -

More got hurt than were mentioned above, because in every case a liar, a cheater, a thief, no matter how small the infraction seems, no matter whether they get caught or anyone else ever knows about it, the offender gets hurt. The liar loses trust in other people, the thief begins to regard material things as more important than people, and the cheater, well, he gets hurt the worst because he begins to see himself as more important than anyone else.

I pray today that the Spirit will strengthen me against the temptations to do wrong things in a small way, because often the small infractions are the ones that hurt me the most. And for those persons I have hurt, for those offenses I have committed, I ask forgiveness in utter miserable remorse for what I've done. I thank God for His mercy in life, and ask that He extend it to others as well.