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 laundry 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 a pile of socks. Sighing, I picked them up and opened her sock drawer. As I shoved back its contents to make room, a piece of paper in the drawer caught my attention. Unlike a store receipt, this paper was yellow and official looking. As I took a closer look, I saw it was a speeding ticket bearing our daughter’s name—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) The Bible encourages us to confess our shortcomings to trusted individuals who can pray for us and hold us accountable. Galatians 6:1-2 says, “If someone is caught in any kind of wrongdoing, those of you who are spiritual should set him right; but you must do it in a gentle way…Help carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ.”
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!
