Published 11/23/19
By Greg Johnson
What If...
It’s Monday morning and you’re heading to your classroom—as usual. As you get closer, you see a couple of your friends, so you run to find out what they did over the weekend.
Walking into class, you notice that things aren’t quite right. The sentence on the blackboard that you usually have to correct isn’t there. There’s also no coffee smell. Looking over in the corner you see an older woman sitting at the desk where your teacher usually sits.
One of your friends starts to get this look in her eye.
“What are you thinking?” you say.
“It looks like we have a substitute today, doesn’t it?” Nicole says.
“So?”
“So, why don’t we have some fun?”
“Whaddaya mean?”
“Let’s grab a couple other girls and get them in on this.”
“On what?” you demand.
“Megan, Susan, you want to play an innocent little trick on the substitute?” she whispers as the other two girls approach.
“Sure,” they agree, giggling.
“OK, I’ll be Megan. Megan, you be Susan, Susan, you be Sharon. And Sharon, you be me. We’ll sit in each other’s seats and see how long we can go before she finds out. I bet we can fool her all day.”
“Sounds great,” Megan says. “But we should tell the kids around us so they don’t give it away.”
“Good idea, Megan,” Nicole says.
“OK, we better get in our seats.”
When the teacher calls roll, everyone plays her part perfectly. The teacher doesn’t suspect a thing.
Though you thought it was mean to fool this substitute, you went along with it because it did seem fairly innocent.
Questions to Think On
• What should you really have done?
• When playing a trick on others–including adults–can’t really hurt them, does that make it OK to fool them?
• What would the consequences have been from the principal if he had caught you? How about at home?
• If your friends at school really tried something like this to fool a teacher, what would you say if you felt it was unkind to do?
What Does God Have to Say?
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.
(c)