Telling the Truth

True story from about one and a half weeks ago:

I was at a Science Olympiad celebration party after the regional competition. At one point, the entire team (or at least those who were there) posed for a picture. Seeing as most of the team was on or in front of the couch, I went behind it. After the picture, I wanted to get out from behind the couch. There was about one foot between the couch and the wall, which was actually in majority composed of two windows. These windows had brown, wooden blinds on them.

That day I was wearing carpenter pants, the kind that have that loop meant for a hammer. While I was exiting from behind the couch, my pants actually caught on one of the blinds and snapped it, making one piece 3/4 the original length stay attached and the other piece fall to the floor.

At this moment, the first thought that popped into my head was, "Ignore it. Pretend it didn't happen. Don't admit you did it. Move away from the spot as quickly as possible." I knew this would be wrong of me to do so, but I wanted really badly to not have the host of the house get angry at me or have other people be mad at me either. I wanted to lie. But I knew it wouldn't be the right thing to do.

As I stood there, staring at the broken pieces of wood, the person sitting on the back of the couch turned around and said, "Did you break something?"

At this moment, I could have easily stood in front of the broken pieces and say "No!" and lie. It would have been the easiest thing to do at the moment, at least it appeared to be so. But it wouldnt' be right.

So I said, "Oops, I think I broke the blind here," as I picked up the smallest broken piece and put it alongside the bigger piece. There, I did it. I told the truth. And it wasn't easy. I knew I did the right thing, but I didn't want to suffer whatever consequences were coming my way.

A couple adults, the parent of the person on the back of the seat and the host, noticed we were looking at something and came over. "What happened here," one said, "Is something broken?"

The person on the back of the couch pointed to me, actually easing my frustration and making it a bit easier for me to say, "It was me, I broke the blinds accidentally with the stupid hammer holder on my pants."

I waited for the accusation. I waited for the punisment sentence. "I would have expected two boys to have done it, not too girls," the host began, "But don't worry about it. We can just super glue it together and move it to the bottom of the rack, so that it won't be visable behind the couch."

I was so happy with the response. I did the right thing and no one got mad at me? Wow. It was definately the right thing to do, admitting that I broke it. If I had instead gone with my first instinct, I might feel guilty about it to this day and never forgive myself and wonder what would have happened had I confessed.

But I don't have to worry about what could have happened. Through this somewhat simple experience, I have realized the true importance of telling the truth, no matter what the circumstances. Because of this, I will likely tell the truth in future experiences similar to this as well.

God is good all the time, and all the time God is Good.

†God Bless†
Bria