Years ago, I was teaching either second or third grade at Parkview. Each year Utah State University would come and bring these science kits and we would have an all day science event where students rotated from class to class and did cool science activities and experiments. On this particular day, I was running an activity that used sand. Because I was reaching my hand into this big box of sand over and over, I took off my wedding ring and put it deep into my pants pocket. The day was a fun day but exhausting and so after school ended, I cleaned up, prepared for the next day and headed home. As I left my school, I reached into my pocket and grabbed my car keys, got in my car and drove home. After arriving at home, I suddenly realized that I wasn't wearing my wedding ring so I reached into my pocket to grab it. But...it wasn't there! I was so upset. I figured I must have lost it in my classroom or at my school....very likely when I was grabbing my car keys from my pocket. But would I be able to find it?
The next morning, I headed to my school. I looked around on the sidewalk and the parking lot but I didn't see it. So I went to talk to my school secretary and told her what had happened. And a student had turned it in. A student had found it in the grass near the school doors and had taken it to our secretary. I was SO very grateful that the student chose to be honest and that the student turned it in. I was also so grateful that my prayers were heard and answered. (Just a tiny bit of added context. This school is in an area with high poverty. Most of the students come from homes where money is tight and challenges abound. It might have been easy for the child to justify that there was no way to find the owner or that their family needed the money the ring would bring. I'm so grateful for the honesty of that child in what may have been a tempting situation--though maybe it wasn't a temptation at all.)
LESSONS LEARNED:
There are many good, honest people in this world.
Job 27:5 "God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me."
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