The Baker’s Rack  

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.  ~Thomas Jefferson

About 15 years ago when my husband and I were dating I decided to go to the store to get a baby shower gift. Jerry told me he would take me and drop me off at the store to purchase the gift and he would go to the cleaners to pick up his clothes.  He would swing back by and pick me up. 

This particular store was like a warehouse with 20 foot tall shelves.  The shelves had things stacked on top of them.  So I head down the baby aisle.  As I am standing there a baker’s rack that was standing on the top shelf fell off and landed on my head and dropped me like a rock.  There was a person on the other side of the aisle who was trying to get something off the shelf and it had jarred the rack that fell. 

As I am sitting on the floor holding my head I look at the end of the aisle and I see a head poke around the corner then disappear.  A few minutes later a manager shows up and calls an ambulance. 

In the meantime my husband, unaware of what is going on at the store, drives back up to the store to pick me up.  He sees the ambulance parked outside and his first thought is that some elderly person must have had a heart attack.  He goes into the store and starts looking for me.  When he doesn’t find me he goes row by row until he gets to the row I am on. 

A side line to the story is that for my birthday that year Jerry had given me a great pair of Lucchese boots.  So as he is walking and looking down each aisle he comes to my aisle and recognizes the bottom of my boots because by this time they have me lying flat on the floor.  The good thing about this story is I didn’t have a concussion and was not injured other than the big knot on my head and a small cut. 

The part that bothered me the most about this was that when I tried to get the store to pay for the ambulance and hospital bill, they treated me as if I caused the whole thing intentionally.  The sad reality about this is that there are people in this world who are going to cheat or scam others out of their money intentionally.  Dishonesty breeds more dishonesty.  Bit by bit we have become a dishonest society.  The problem with this is that once dishonesty starts it becomes easier to be dishonest over and over again.   

      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, our world has become a place where dishonesty resides on every corner. We have become just like Jacob and the story of Esau.  Jacob lied and was dishonest with his father and then he went so far as to tell his father that “The Lord your God gave me success” just so that he could have Esau’s birthright.  Father I want to be honest in my dealings with others.  I pray that You will remind me of this story if I start to stray toward dishonesty.    

Scripture:    Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn.  I have done as you told me.  Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing." Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”
“The Lord your God gave me success," he replied.  Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."  Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."  He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those  for his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.  "Are you really my son Esau?" he asked.  "I am,” he replied.  Then hs said, "My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing."  Genesis 27:19-25