When we moved into our home in July, we found beautiful red rock in the front yard for landscaping. The yard was a nightmare and the rocks hard to find, but they were there and we were so excited to use them to make a flower garden. Thinking that the previous homeowners had stared a project that they couldn't finish, we got started on one of our own. Talking to the neighbor one day we mentioned the rock. She politely told us that the previous owners had "borrowed" it from a construction site. I was appalled!!! How do you "borrow" expensive red rock from a construction site, you ask? Well, no one was using at the time so they just took it. We felt so dirty even using that rock after that, but there was no longer a construction site to return it to.
That story has troubled me since we moved in. Then today when we got home from church, we were getting lunch/dinner ready and I looked out the window at our back yard. Just behind our house they are building new townhouses. They are a little too close for my liking, but it's been really fun watching them progress. Anyways, as I was looking out the window, I noticed a car stop by the construction site and a little boy (probably 5-8 years old) get out. He was picking up various pieces of particle board and my first thought was, "holy smokes! that kid is totally stealing wood from the site!" so I called Trent over. We watched as he picked up pieces and then set them down studying them closely while his mother (I assume) waited in the running car. Then he started clearing the snow off one of them. "Whew!" I thought, "He's just clearing the snow or playing in the snow". Nope. He cleared that board of snow and then tried to take it to the car. He couldn't handle it by himself so his mother came to help and together they threw it in the back of the car. Trent was mad. He walked out on the back porch and whistled at them to get their attention. They didn't notice us. They sat in the car for a minute then the boy got out again, picked up another piece of particle board and a strip of metal, threw them in the car and then they went on their way home. What was so disturbing about this whole scene--other than the fact that they stole from a construction site in broad daylight-- was that they were on their way home from church. Our church. Our ward. And it was also saddening to watch this mother set such an example for her children. She taught them today that it's ok to take things that aren't yours. They were not poor, or at least didn't have that appearance in their new SUV and fancy church clothes, so I wonder why it was so important for them to take those things? Why it was so important to give up their integrity for $15 of particle board. Maybe I'm over reacting. I tend to do that. But it made me think. Is that what this world has come to? I hope that I'm a better example for my children. I hope that my children grow up with a sense of integrity and accountability. We are always,
always, setting an example for our children. The choice is ours whether it's a good example or not. Maybe it's become common place for people to "borrow" indefinitely without a care in the world, but I do not wish that for my children.
