Trudy   |  Tuesday, November 08, 2011
Tags: Family

Just a Penny

The following story is an excerpt from my book, “Along the Way,” available here.

Each week, my mother drove my brother Dan and me to piano lessons with Mr. Edwards in East Point, Georgia. I had my lesson first while Dan sat in the car with Mother, doing his homework.

One afternoon, as I finished my lesson, Mr. Edwards was talking with Dan as I headed out to join Mother in the car. As I gathered my music books to leave, I happened to notice a penny sitting on the corner of Mr. Edwards’ coffee table.

Without a second thought, I picked it up and skipped down the front steps to the car.

As I prepared to begin my homework, I admired the penny in my hand and rolled it around a bit. For some reason, that attracted Mother’s attention and she asked, “Trudy, where did you get that penny?” Guilt bubbled up in my heart as I haltingly replied, “ Well, I picked it up off of Mr. Edwards’ coffee table.” To my utter dismay, she said, “ You need to take that penny back to him. It’s not yours.”

I responded to this shocking statement, “But Mom, it’s just a penny!”

She explained how wrong that thinking was. “You can’t take things that don’t belong to you,” she said. “The Bible calls that stealing.” She looked me squarely in the eyes and said, “Trudy, you are going to take that penny back to Mr. Edwards, and you are going to apologize and admit your wrong.” At that pronouncement, I threw a rather unlovely fit and insisted that there was no way I could possibly carry out such a request. Mother calmly said, “We are not leaving until you take care of this. You may wait until Dan’s lesson is finished, but you will do as I have asked.”

As I recall, I felt horrible about having picked up the penny, but for some reason the fact that I had done something wrong had not registered with me yet – it was just a penny. When I told Mr. Edwards what I had done and handed the penny to him, I felt even more terrible. I was eager to get back in the car and leave the whole matter behind me.

Interestingly enough, I have never really left it behind. To this day if I see a penny somewhere, perhaps in the parking lot, I don’t dare pick it up because it’s not mine.

You see, it wasn’t a matter of just a penny after all.

Think back to a lesson you learned as a child. What impact has this lesson had on your life?