Hard Life Lesson

Some life lessons are HARD to learn and even HARDER to teach. Yesterday, the girls and I ran into the grocery store for one item. I decided to use the self checkout and as I was scanning my item, Sierra pointed to the change tray and said, "Hey look Momma! Money!". Sure enough, the person before us(who was already long gone) had left $20 in the change tray. Oh how badly I wanted to keep that money. My 4 year old was watching though. Do I take the money and take her out for lunch, or do I turn in it? Man, I wanted that money. Really really wanted it. After I paid, I picked it up and frantically debated all 10 steps to the cashier station. I have to be honest, had my kids not been there, I think I may have taken it. In the end though, I handed it to the cashier and let her know someone had left their change. I barely got an "oh, okay", not even a thank you, certainly not any sort of monetary reward for being so nice and not taking it. For all I know, the cashier kept it for herself. All the way out of the store I was mentally kicking myself thinking maybe I should have just taken it after all. I mean, all through elementary school you learn, "finders keepers", right? When we got to the car, Sierra was buckling her car seat and said, "Momma, you sure are nice for leaving that money. It wasn't ours, so it wouldn't be right to keep it". SIGH! So it turns out I did the right thing after all. Man, it was hard though!