Where
was the blue laundry basket? The last time I saw it was Friday morning when I
had put the basket filled with our daughter’s clean, neatly folded clothes in
her bedroom. This was Monday. Surely, she had put her clothes away by now—or
not.
Opening her bedroom door, I spotted the basket beside her dresser, mostly empty except for several pairs of socks. With a little irritated sigh, I picked them up and shoved back the contents of her already crowded sock drawer to make room. A piece of paper in the drawer caught my attention. Unlike a store receipt, this paper was yellow and official looking. Curious, I drew the paper out from beneath the socks. It was a speeding ticket bearing our daughter’s name, with a fine of $95 for driving 10 miles over the speed limit within the borough limits—and it was due by the end of the week.
When did she plan to tell her dad and me about this? Or didn’t she intend to tell us at all? Perhaps she thought she could keep it from us and avoid the inevitable repercussions.
Don’t we do the same thing? We try to hide those things we are not proud of, both from one another and from God. We want to avoid the negative consequences of our words and actions, so we try to disguise them, gloss them over, or stuff them out of sight.
However, the Bible warns us that “your sins will find you out” (Numbers 32:23), and “all that is secret will be made public.” (Luke 12:2-3)
God tells us to confess our sins to Him and He will forgive them. (1 John 1:9) James 5:16 encourages a practice of confessing shortcomings and sins to trusted individuals within a community, not to receive forgiveness (which comes from God), but for healing, accountability, and support.
Had our daughter come to us and admitted she had been speeding, the consequences would have been less. Attempting to hide it only added to the offense. Honesty really is the best policy.
Be encouraged!
