I try to be a good person and practice the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you”, but sometimes the ways of the world make it difficult to act on behalf of honesty. Recently I went through a Wendy’s drive-thru. No lie, I was at the first window with my card in the cashier’s hand for almost 10 minutes, all because my order disappeared into no-mans-land. The hold-up caused the typical drama between employees and their manager. Everyone was feeling the stress so much that they almost forgot I was witnessing the system breakdown in a less than graceful manner. At the suggestion of one of the employees the order was retaken, I got my order and left. Pulling over into the next lot, I found out that my 4 for 4 deal was not exactly what I ordered. With bag in hand, I returned to Wendy’s to let them know that they gave me 2 orders of chicken nuggets instead of a chicken sandwich and a nugget. Simple enough, right? Upon entering the building the atmosphere made me want to turn and run. You could sense the staff was unorganized as they all looked at each other to place blame. They really didn’t seem to want to hear what I had to say either as someone said, “Just tell us what you need”. So much for the days when you were given the respect of being heard. I felt like an emotionless standard text that they just wanted to hurry up an delete. In order to quickly escape the toxic environment, I just said, “chicken sandwich”. Hurrying back to my car I started to divvy out some fries to my grandson and that’s when I seen it, the missing but now found chicken sandwich tucked beneath the fries. Oh, my heart sank. This quick drive-thru order was now consuming way too much of my time and I found myself trying to justify leaving. Now anyone who truly knows me realizes that even if I temporarily choose to walk away from an unsettled situation I will not in my heart be able to let the unjust act go uncorrected for very long. If I were born mid-1400 BC you probably would have found me standing in line ready to sacrifice a unblemished ram and offering a customary one-fifth additional restitution for the atonement of my unknown sin. The fact was not only was I given an extra chicken nugget the first time, but I also returned to scored another sandwich, unknowingly. This is the time when my honesty, longsuffering, and patience should have kicked in. This was the moment that I could have changed the tone of what these employees were experiencing, but I turned and left. So instead of devoting another 5 minutes to bring peace to the lives of others I in turned suffered from the thought of not standing as an example for honesty. After all, someone owns that business and we all play a part in making sure we that the owner is given their rightful share. The Bible talks about not stealing and being trustworthy. How can we stand up for righteousness and show who we serve by our characters if we are never tested? I should have been found rejoicing to have had the opportunity to do what’s right in front of God and man. Being impatient definitely is not one of the fruits of His Spirit and if I want to truly live my life for Christ my thoughts will turn into actions that align with His perfect law. The whole evening and the next morning I was haunted by the thoughts that I needed to make things right. So I went back to Wendy’s and a whole other team was there, no one from the day before. I talked to the manager and said that I didn’t see the sandwich which was under the fries, but there was also an extra chicken nugget in the bag which my husband did eat and that I want to pay for them. The manager gave me a strange look and said that’s nice, but don’t worry about it. I insisted that I wanted to order some fries to go and they need to charge me for the sandwich and nuggets and don’t give them to me. After all, we really don’t want to short change the owner. The manager kept insisting no, no don’t worry about it. So then I tried to explain to the cashier what I wanted to do and she refused to charge me also. My next stop was the internet in hopes of finding the owner in order to return the two bucks owed to them. At this point, I’m starting to think about how hard it is to make things right after waiting. This all could have been resolved the day before, my test passed, but no, now I’m left with this burden to find the owner of the Wendy’s. So far no luck on my attempt to be honest. Through this process, I was looked at like a weirdo as if it’s not the norm to stand up for another person’s pocketbook when the money is coming from my own wallet. There is more at stake here than money, it’s a step out in faith moment. The Bible says that faith without works is dead and I want to live showing my faith is alive. Over the next few weeks with no luck in finding the owner, I continued to visit Wendy’s. Then the day came when the cashier ripped me off of some change. I almost started to say something when I realized that this might just be the way for the owner to get their money back. It wasn’t the full amount, but it gave me something to pray about. So a simple prayer was sent up that the next time I go through Wendy’s drive-thru that the cashier would short change me once again in order to cover the funds I owe the owner. I am happy to say that not only was my prayer answered, but they actually took 25 cents more then I owed. Did I say anything to them about it? I would like to hear your thoughts on why you would or would not have asked for your change back.