Serials and Scenarios - 12 Gifts of Christmas - Honesty - M. Littleton

I thought this looked fun, festive and meaningful. As you read each of the 12 Christmas gifts, prepare yourself for less print worthy moments from me as I try to produce something with the same theme to add a moment of levity, insanity or head-scratching to the day. I'll post in red.

Celebrating the true meaning of the Christmas season, Glass Roads Public Relations is proud to introduce to you the twelve days of Christmas. Twelve inspired devotional thoughts written by some of the best and brightest authors in the Christian industry.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....

The Gift of Honesty

God's Gift of Honesty
by Mark Littleton

As a new Christian, I wasn’t really prepared for the stark truth about my previous life. Rummaging in my closet, I came across several shirts I had shop-lifted a couple of years before. I immediately remembered several items from the same heist.

Standing there trembling, I was unsure about what to do. I prayed, “God, what should I do about this?” It seemed the inner voice spoke immediately: “You need to return them to the store.”

I didn’t need to reflect much on it. I knew that was the right thing to do.

I packed up the items, drove to the nearby Bamberger’s store at the Cherry Hill Mall and found security. I explained what I’d done and offered to pay for the items. The guard smiled. “Every now and then we get one of these,” he said. “I’ll find out the prices and you can pay.”

A few days later, I got the call. Over sixty-five dollars in charges. In 1972 dollars, that was a lot of money. I sucked it up, though, wrote out a check and dropped it by. The guard thanked me for my integrity, saying, “I wish there were more like you out there. But shop-lifting costs us big-time. Just the same, I respect what you did.”

I went away feeling like I’d pleased God. There were other things I would return in the coming days, and it was always difficult. And costly. But the peace of mind and heart I received were all worth it. To say nothing of the witness to unbelievers, one of whom invited me to come visit him his family in Switzerland after I sent him back the stamps I’d stolen while babysitting his children years before.

Mark Littleton is the author of The Ten-Second Prayer Principle: Powerful Prayer As You Go (Howard Books, 2007) and many other books. For more information visit life-ology.townhall.com or here.

And now an honesty moment from Kelly.

I’m glad I didn’t have to return shoplifted shirts. Instead, my shoplifting bug was crushed early in life.

One day my friend and I went to the grocery store with her mom. Not unusual in itself. What was unusual was the whispered comment as we passed the Brach’s display. “Grab one and put it in your pocket.”

My friend was taller than me and had three older brothers. She’d proven her superior whupping skills before, so I grabbed. As the chocolate cream drop slowly softened in my pocket, all sorts of yucky rumblings were taking place in my little six-year-old psyche.

It ended up being a bittersweet relief when my friend’s mom caught us huddled by the fence with sticky wrappers in hand and chocolate breath. We were hustled back to the car and driven to the store. Each of us carried two pennies and a candy wrapper to the cashier under the watchful eye of “mom.”

Wonder if that little incident branded my friend’s soul? I’ll never forget it.