The Bubblicious bubble gum with its bright pink wrapper and bubble letters was too great a temptation.<\/p>\n
I grabbed it from the supermarket checkout line, hid it in my pocket.<\/p>\n
Mom discovered my theft before we made it to the car. She turned around, marched me back into the store where I was to return the item, apologize, and pay for it.<\/p>\n
The shop lady was nice, trying to be kind.<\/p>\n
“It’s okay,” she said.<\/p>\n
“No, it is NOT okay,” my mother replied.<\/b><\/p>\n
It was an offense, a punishable offense. Shoplifting, theft. Whatever you call it, it’s a crime. It’s not okay.<\/p>\n
I think of my childhood shoplifting when a mortified child returns to my room with a plastic carrot in hand.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry I took your carrot,” says the mouth hidden in her chest.<\/p>\n
I resist the urge to tell her that it’s okay.<\/b><\/p>\n
It isn’t okay.<\/p>\n
I tell her I forgive her. I thank her for returning it.<\/p>\n
I’m glad there are still mothers like mine, who agree that it’s not okay.<\/p>\n
There is hope yet for this next generation–some kids are still learning not to steal, some kids are still learning to confess their wrongdoings. <\/p>\n
And I will do my part. I will condemn the behavior and give grace to the child. I will offer forgiveness without sweeping sin under the rug. <\/p>\n
Inasmuch as I can, I will help these children learn law AND grace.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bubblicious bubble gum with its bright pink wrapper and bubble letters was too great a temptation. I grabbed it from the supermarket checkout line, hid it in my pocket. Mom discovered my theft before we made it to the car. She turned around, marched me back into the store where I was to return … Read more No, it’s NOT okay<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11749"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11749"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11757,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11749\/revisions\/11757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}