We ended the service and moved to the children's department as we needed to rehearse with the children for their upcoming Children’s Day program next week. As we were almost rounding up after an hour, a girl began to cry. I asked what was wrong and she wasn’t ready to speak up.
I moved on to other things and for a short while, this girl wasn’t participating well in the rehearsal. I asked again, and this time, she spoke up. She misplaced her Bible and money. I told her to check all the chairs, as no one would take the Bible, and besides, we were still around, and no one had left. She eventually found her Bible but her money was missing. That was what pained her the most.
The money was a small amount — you know how kids behave. Even a small amount looks big to them. But no matter how I tried to comfort her, she wasn’t satisfied. As we ended the rehearsal, I was a bit concerned about her because she isn’t the type of girl to act that way.
Some children came around to confirm they saw the money on the floor but didn’t know who picked it. One of them spoke up that he saw another girl who had the money with her and said it was hers.
I called for the little girl who is five years old. She said it was true she took the money but when she didn’t know who owned it, she took it to the chief usher in the church.
That amazed me because I don’t think many children would do that. In fact, a teacher among us already assumed the money would have been taken by another child who would have spent it on snacks. But no, we were proved wrong by this little girl who demonstrated a good moral by refusing to take what didn’t belong to her.
What even amazed me the most was her wisdom to go and give it to the chief usher instead of pretending not to see the money on the floor.
The owner was still not satisfied until a woman promised to give her double during the week for Bible study. When the other children wanted to accuse the little girl, I quickly came in and applauded her, saying what she did was right and no one should blame her because she was not wrong for doing so.
Teaching children the right thing to do is something every ideal parent should do, and the refusal to do so could lead such a child to steal or act otherwise. When children are taught what is right, especially in aspects like not taking what does not belong to them, they grow up to become responsible adults because of what has been taught to them.
As I walked home, I could not stop thinking about that incident and what a good girl she is for doing that.
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