Taking My Granddaddy's Quarter 645.2
During a seminar for teachers, I asked participants to share experiences that shaped their values. A Southern lady shared this story:
Her grandfather understood this was a teachable moment and didn't shy away from his duty to provide unambiguous moral guidance. And he did so in a manner that made the experience a permanent marker in his granddaughter's life.More than 50 years ago, when I was five, I was at my granddaddy's house in a dress and white gloves. He told me I could go into the kitchen and get a cookie. Next to the cookie jar was a stack of quarters. I knew I shouldn't have, but I took one.
I must have looked guilty when I returned because my granddaddy looked at me funny and asked me to show him my white gloves. I had the quarter in my right hand so I held out my left.
"Show me the other hand," he said. When he saw the quarter, he looked at me sadly.
He hugged me and said, "Darlin', you can have anything in the world I have, but it breaks my heart that you'd ever steal it."
I'll never forget the shame, and I never stole anything again.
Without harsh words or punishment, he established high standards and expectations and taught her that, because of his love for her, he was a stakeholder in her choices and that he was hurt when she let him down.
An informed healthy conscience is a built-in punishment/reward system that makes us proud when we do things right and ashamed at our moral missteps. But such a conscience doesn't develop by accident.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
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Comments
Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?
Posted by: Peter | November 16, 2009 2:40 PM
great post as usual .. thanks .. you just gave me a few more ideas to play with.
Posted by: forex robot | November 18, 2009 8:35 AM
At certain moments in our lives, God gives us the right words to say, in the correct tone of voice. If we only listen, this seems to be one of those moments. That was a great story!!!
God bless.
Posted by: Craig Kelley | November 24, 2009 6:25 PM
I was five years old and had hardly ever been out of Reeve Township, Indiana, when my grandmother decided to take me the ten miles to Loogootee for a shopping trip. While she bought fabric and notions for her a new dress it never entered my mind that I should have been given a nickel to buy something for myself. I went to the ring display and decided to try one on. It was a hard decision, because one was just more beautiful than the other. Finally I slipped one on that had a bright red stone. The temptation was too much; I slipped it in my pocket. That night after grandma and I had got in bed and I could hear her soft snoring, guilt was burning my soul. I slipped out of bed, out the house and ran as fast as I could, in my little feed sack petticoat towards the pond. The full moon gave enough light to see to avoid the cow piles while I ran through the barn yard and up over the gate to the pasture. Through the pasture I ran and when I got to the pond I looked up at the moon and said "God, if you will forgive me I will never steal again" I think I have kept that promise for seventy more years....thank you.
Posted by: Georgia Prewett | November 25, 2009 5:43 PM
I was five years old and had hardly ever been out of Reeve Township, Indiana, when my grandmother took me the ten miles to Loogootee, Indiana. I tagged along behind her through the dime store, never thinking I should be given a nickel to spend. While Grandma shopped for dress fabric I stared at the display of the beautiful rings. They were all colors and shapes. I slipped one on my finger to try on and the temptation was too strong. I kept it. Late that night guilt bore on my heart so heavily that I slipped out of bed and after listening for my grandma's slight snore I quietly left the house. The full moon was bright enough that I could dodge every cow pile in the barn yard and across the meadow to the pond. I looked up at the moon and said to God "If you forgive me I will never steal again". I threw the ring out into the middle of the pond and I can still see the ripples and how my heart was cleansed of guilt. I ran hell bent back across the meadow, the barnyard in my little white feed sack petticoat, and quietly crawled back into the bed. Grandma never knew I was gone. And I have never been tempted to steal since then.
Posted by: Georgia Prewett | November 25, 2009 7:22 PM