"For me, honesty was very important early on. I remember one time, as a youngster, we were at a store and I grabbed some candy and followed my parents out. I had it in my hand and thought, 'Mom will probably see it and she'll pay for it or tell me to put it back.' I just held it there and nothing happened but now we were walking out the store and I thought, 'Oh, I got this for free. I didn't have to pay for it.' Then I held it lower and lower to hide it. Then later, she sees me with the candy and says, 'So, where'd you get the candy?' 'From the store.' 'Well, we didn't pay for it.' 'Oh, well, no.'
"So, we marched back into the store and I had to tell the man that I took the candy and did not pay for it. And so, how did he want to deal with this? He was very nice and understanding and he said, 'I think you mother is going to handle that.' And she did! I paid the price.
"That was a very humiliating experience. I went from having free candy to 'boy, I guess I was definitely doing the wrong thing.' Trying to get away with something I knew was wrong, and I learned a good lesson early on. And I feel I have passed this value on to my children."
~ Rick
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comments! Due to the constant spamming, we can no longer accept anonymous comments, but we hope you'll log in and let us know what you think.