In the Sky

This summer as another school year was rapidly approaching, I decided that the 2 oldest needed proper work stations for their home schooling.  With all the moving rooms we did, we didn't have a "cyber" room anymore so we needed a dedicated space that wasn't in rooms with beds.....or always in my living space during the day.  This was an expensive solution to the problem that I had been dreaming of doing for years - I always talked myself out of spending the money.  

I almost talked myself out of spending the money again because our house is already upside down in value and I could literally walk away from it any day without regret.  Long story short, we decided to go for it.  I had no idea that it would take months to complete.  I officially started this process in July.  It is now October - well, it was finished yesterday and that was still September.  

What does this all have to do with the sky, you say?  Well, have a look at the below picture and I'll explain.

If you will notice, there are way too many shelves in those bookcases - it would actually be great if I were storing paper or postage letters in them (there were 6 more still in my garage)  As I mentioned.  This was an expensive endeavor.  What was even more expensive was the labor.  We decided to save money and do some of the work ourselves.  Picking up the boxes and inspecting them is something we decided to save money on.  When we inspected everything, we couldn't find the shelves for the bookcases.  The process was already a long and drawn out one that was making me grumpy.  The company decided to just send more shelves.  

The instillation of the cabinetry was done by contract and guess what they found?  The stupid shelves.  Who's the big fat idiot now?   

The dilemma.  No one would ever know the original shelves where here.  I could do whatever with the extra shelves and live out the rest of my days.  Except.  My integrity would no longer be intact.  The true test of ones integrity is your ability to do the right thing when no one else knows.  I had to decided how much my integrity was worth.  My pride?  

I thought about putting this off.  But doggone it.  I teach seminary.  I have kids.  Have you seen the news lately?  Seriously, if this isn't the second coming - dude we're in for seriously dark days.  General conference is in a couple of days.  I just watched a cheesy 80's church mini movie about putting on the armor of God.  I could swallow my pride, pick up the phone and call my sales agent to ask what I should do about my embarrassing situation.  I need armor more than I need my pride.  

I made the phone call of shame to find out how I should go about returning the shelves.  I got the shelves boxed back up, loaded them up and drove them back to the store.  While I was driving over there my mind went to a little pile of clips on the floor.  Those clips were still sitting on the floor.  I thought that at least I was taking the other stuff back and I didn't need to worry about the silly clips.  I justified that it was pennies to the company.  I loaded up the flatbed cart and took my walk of shame into the store.  I drove back home and decided that I couldn't keep those stupid clips and that I just needed to take them back and be done with it all.  I picked up the clips and drove all the way back, handed them to the lady who smiled big at me and left with my integrity intact - walking uprightly. 

The funniest thing that happened was while I was driving home for the second and final time.  A song came on the radio.  It made me laugh.  The song holds no special meaning for me, but it was so perfect and proves to me that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor.  You just can't make this silly stuff up.  "The spirit in the sky" came on.  I left that trippy song on and belted it out on the way home.  The song writer was under the impression that he never had nor ever will sin, but it was still enjoyable.  Guess what?  I know where I'm going when I die and I personally know my friend, Jesus, who will put in a good word for me!