Honesty

I was backing out of my parking space when I heard the bump. Ugh! I hit the back of the car parked opposite me in the aisle.  Normally I would have had enough room to back out but the lot wasn’t snow plowed very well which meant there was less space in the aisle.  Just thinking about how careless I had been and knowing I had to face Mr. Small Town with the news that I scraped a car, I was tempted to just drive away like it never happened.  I mean, it was just a light bump so I’m sure it didn’t do much damage.  But, I knew what I had to do.

I circled back around, got out, and inspected for damage. There was a teeny, tiny, little scrape.  Surely, the driver of the other car would never notice it underneath all the winter dirt.  Again, I had another tempting thought to leave, but, I took a photo of the damage and went to look for the owner.

After searching several businesses within the strip mall, I finally found the owner getting a pedicure at the nail shop. I approached her and told her that I had hit her car.  Of course, she thought the worst!  I apologized and showed her the photo of the damage.  At this point of the conversation, the nail technician, a Vietnamese woman, became involved and wanted to see the photo.  After examining the photo, she exclaimed loudly in her Vietnamese accent, “That’s nothing! Last week someone hit my door and it caved in. They did not leave a note or anything. You honest person!  You honest person!!”

I gave the women my insurance information and, as I left the nail salon, I could still hear the nail technician telling her and the rest of the salon patrons, “She honest person!”

At dinner that evening I asked Mr. Small Town and the kid if they wanted to hear about my day. (I ask this question just about every evening at dinner because the guys are too busy eating to make conversation.) To my amazement, the Kid said yes, in between inhalations of his food.

I told them about the parking lot incident and the interaction between the other car owner and the nail tech, adding the voice of the Vietnamese woman exclaiming how honest I was. That’s when the Kid spoke up and said, “Good job Mom”.

Not really thinking about his comment, we finished dinner and headed into our evening routines.

The next day, Mr. Small Town called me.  I figured the call was to inform me that it was my responsibility to take care of the insurance as a result of the bump.  But, to my surprise, he thanked me and told me how much he appreciated me telling the story at dinner. Instead of giving a lecture about my carelessness and how I would have to deal with the insurance companies, he explained the look and reaction on the Kid’s face as I told the story.

He told me that the Kid was hanging on every word that I was saying and the look of admiration the Kid had when he said, “Good job mom”.

In my admission of the incident and my actions to it, the character of honesty was built MORE into the Kid than I realized.  To me, it was just dinner conversation about my day.  To the Kid, it was a lesson in honesty.  He could relate to my temptation to drive away and my struggle to do “the right thing.”  And, he saw that I chose to do “the right thing”.

I often forget how much the Kid is watching me and wondering if I ‘walk the walk’ that I talk. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked with him about honesty. But all the talk really hasn’t made much of a difference. It was when he saw my experience at being honest that impressed him. He could relate to my temptation of being dishonest, the reasons why I didn’t want to be honest, and then overcoming the temptation.

What I’ve realized is that it’s not the character building programs at school, the consequences at home, or the lessons at church that teaches my Kid about taking on the character of Christ, it’s me – his imperfect, flawed mother – that has the greatest impact on his life. And, this time, I got it right.

What have you been doing to live out your life to be more like Christ?  You never know who will be watching and learning from you!

Living out the fruit of the spirit for my little disciple!  (Galatians 5:22)