August 28, 2015

Tenth Grade Insight

Guest Post by Ethan Billhime

Ethan is a freshman at the University of  Florida who loves cars and Jesus and recently rediscovered a devotional book that he never finished from the tenth grade. This is an entry from that collection of devotionals, titled "Get A Clue". 
Note:  He is also dating my daughter Julia who he accurately describes as "wonderful, super cute, and slightly overwhelmed."


Is that really cheating?
Last Friday, I was taking the first math quiz of the new nine weeks.I didn't feel too confident going into class, but after a quick review I was ready to go. The quiz was a double bubble map with only two questions. I was nervous, because I knew if I got one wrong, the quiz would automatically be an F. I did all of my own work, circled the answers, and looked back over my quiz. I realized I hadn't put the answers in the designated "answer space."

As I copied down what I had circled, the person sitting next to me whispered, "the reciprocal." I looked at the answer I wrote and at my work. I realized that when I circled my answer, I cut off too soon and left out the last part.  I changed to my second answer (that reciprocal), thought about it, and turned in my quiz.

I felt awful. "I put the answer down anyway." "So it was already there." "I didn't cheat." "I didn't even ask for help."

I finally decided to go to the teacher's desk and tell her the truth. I walked up and BLEW IT!
I couldn't do it.

When I finally did go and tell the teacher what happened,  she told me that it was ok. Because I originally had that answer, it wasn't cheating.

The right thing to do can sometimes be the hardest thing in the world, especially when you have to fix something you did wrong. But that's where forgiveness comes in.




No comments:

Post a Comment