AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL

I don't remember how old I was when I came up with one of my more brilliant plans. Maybe I was twelve or thirteen when I decided that I would try smoking.

Smoking was against the house rules, but who thinks they will get caught in the beginning?

It's important to know that this plan was conceived in a 1,000 square foot home with one bathroom. My thought was to go into the bathroom and raise the window. Then no one would know.

Out in the hall by the bathroom door, there was a wrought iron bookshelf. One day I chose a book and cut out a square in the middle. I put glue around the edges of the pages. VOILA! The perfect stash for a pack of cigarettes.

I smiled at my book selection, An Old Fashioned Girl.

I can't say that I would recommend trying this at home because somehow my mother figured out my plan.

Today, I keep this book in our bookshelves. The book is empty now, but it reminds me that sometimes when I think I can swim upstream of the rules, it doesn't work.

Even if your Mama doesn't catch you, there is an invisible Observer who records all our deeds.

The Lord sees things done in secret. He saw the widow's mite and it impressed Him. And He also sees the sneakiest heart working in what they think is darkness.

The beauty of God is that He stands ready with an offer of divine exchange. In fact, His specialty is exchanging our hearts for His.

"Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?' You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" Isaiah 29.15,16 NIV