We have been reflecting on some of the biblical principles God has given to help us develop healthy boundaries. In this series, we have identified three of these principles:

1. The principle of responsibility
2. The principle of reaping
3. The principle of respect

We looked at the first of these last week. This week, we turn our attention to the principle of reaping and sowing.

When I was in the eighth grade, my school had a canned goods drive to help out a local food bank. And they incentivized the students by telling us that the grade that brought in the most canned goods would receive a day off from school. This was toward the end of the school year in May. We had one last regular day of classes on Tuesday before final exams on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So this last Tuesday was the day off you could win if your grade brought in the most cans.

Well, my class rallied to bring in a huge number of canned goods and we won the day off from school. For me, this meant that I didn’t have to come to school on Tuesday; but because I had pretty good grades, I was also exempt from taking any exams on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So essentially, I got to start my summer break a whole day earlier. It was a pretty good deal.

In eighth grade, my last class of the day was study hall. And I didn’t have anything to study on this final Monday — because my summer break was basically NOW. And since I only lived about a mile or so from the school, I came up with the idea that I would skip study hall on that Monday and I would walk home. My friend Brandon was going to be spending the night at my house that night, so I roped him into my crazy plan, too. So when the bell rang to go to study hall, Brandon and I snuck out a side door and walked to my house.

Seeing as how I lived nearby, we made it to my house in pretty good time. As soon as I walked in the house, the phone rang — and without even thinking about it, I answered and said, “Hello.” And the voice on the other end of the line said, “JASON BYBEE!” It was Mr. Welch, the principal. He said, “What are you doing at home when you’re supposed to be in study hall right now?” Apparently Brandon had been bragging to everybody about our plan to skip class and word got back to Mr. Welch. He said he actually stood at the window and watched us as we left.

We never had a chance.

Our punishment was that we had to show up at school the next day — the day we were supposed to have off! And we got a paddling (back then this was legal) and we had to spend the morning walking the campus picking up trash. At lunchtime, Mr. Welch said we were free to leave. He smiled at me and said, “At least you know the way home.”

I made a string of bad decisions that day: the decision to skip class; the decision to walk home; to decision to answer the phone. And those bad decisions led to some consequences. And the whole thing pointed to a lesson I needed to learn: you reap what you sow.