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If It Appears Too Good…
© 2014
by
Stephen A. Peterson
The king’s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.
I Kings 10:28 (NIV)
As an 11 year old, I learned one of the most useful lessons of my life—to be cautious and discerning of unreasonable bargains. One of my classmates told me he could get me a Mickey Mouse watch and transistor radio for a total of $2.00. At the time, I had $0.10 to my name. The only way I could come up with that kind of money was to collect pop bottles and rake leaves. Small bottles, when redeemed, would yield $0.02 and large ones $0.05. Raking neighbor’s yards usually earned $0.20 to $0.30. So if I wanted that watch and radio I had to hop to it.
I went around the area checking trash cans, soda machines, the park, work sites, churches even school grounds for bottles. In three days, I was able to collect a total $1.09 from bottles, $0.45 for raking leaves. I already had $0.10. I, therefore, had a total $1.64. With less than two days to go, I went to my classmate to see if I could get a discount. No deal! It was $2.00 or else! He told me that he would sell them to someone else.
I knew I could not ask my parents or grandparents for the money for they would have asked me so many questions that I could not answer or make me go out and earn the money. So I took the wagon out to pick up as many bottles as I could find. I found only $0.08 more. This was not going to help. After a little bit of thought, I decided to see if I could earn $0.28 from the church. I went to the parish office to see if I could work this out. After a few minutes with the priest, we agreed that he would pay me $0.30 if I raked the leaves up and pulled weeds out of his prized tulip flower bed.
After completing the three hour tasks, the priest gave me two brand new one dollar bills for my efforts. He thanked me then gave me a blessing for the good work.
I gave my classmate the $2.00 in return for the watch and radio. To celebrate my great fortunes, I went to a store to buy myself an ice cream cone and a bottle of pop. The store owner recognized the two items. Unknown to me, he called the police. When police arrived, I was detained and had to answer a few embarrassing questions, tell the police where I got the items and return them to the owner before I was permitted to leave. I was not aware that my classmate had been caught before taking items from this store. He was picked up, admitted to taking the items then placed in juvenile hall. The following day, the police officer thanked me for my honesty but warned me never to purchase things unless I knew where they came from.
A huge lesson for me was that I did not get my money back after working hard to earn it. I was deceived by the hope of getting something for little or nothing. I believed that if I had been more discerning this would never had happened. However, I also learned to ask a great deal of questions, throw away junk mail and when the personal computer age arrived to delete suspicious e-mails when they promised “too good to be true deals”.
Nothing worthwhile in education, politics, religion, work or in life come free. About all we actually get for free is advice—and it is often bad, worthless advice!
Prayer:
Gracious Lord, help us to utilize the intelligence and freedom to be human You chose to give us. Grant us the ability to seek You with all our heart and mind to make wise, honest decisions and choices that will honor You above all else. We make this prayer through Jesus’ Most Holy Name. Amen.
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