I always knew stealing was bad, but some things are just too tempting. I can personally say I was tempted by a tiny tape measure from Home Depot.
For me temptation has always been a problem, which is why I refer back to this event. When I was four years old, I was obsessed with construction and building things. I walked into the Home Depot with my father, amazed by the tools and devices they had for building things. To me it seemed awesome. I walked by a small little rack with tiny tape measures that could clip onto your pants or belt. I had to get one. I asked my dad to see if I could get one, and of course he said no. As we were walking out of the store, I grabbed one of the tape measures and I put it in my pocket. I thought about putting it back several times. But all I wanted was a tape measure....My conscience finally won. I confessed to my dad that I had taken the measure. I felt terrible. He told me that he knew I took it all along, he just waited for me to do the right thing.
Of course, everyone is tempted in life. I’m sure everyone has gotten that urge to steal or do something that they think looks appealing. However, we need to think about the right things to do and the laws to abide by. The bad part is that you’ll never know how hard it is to turn down something you want until it actually happens to you. It also depends on what items or things we want and how badly we want them. In my case it was something very small, however it meant a lot to me. Which therefore tempted me to take it. It doesn’t matter how young we are, we still have to make a desicion.
When we get in the situations there is only two ways to go. Give in or refuse. When I gave in to the temptation, I learned a huge lesson. Even though I stole something, I ended up telling the truth. I am never going to steal anything again. Not only that, but when situations get tempting again I know the right path to take and I know how terrible I would feel if I chose to do something bad. I now have experience for the future. Sure, I know I will make a lot of bad decisions in life for the future, but not as bad that one.
In a way this whole situation happening when I was so young is good, it made me figure out when I was even younger what I should do. Temptation is still a very important factor to me and I don’t ever try to forget what I did, but instead I move on, this is something that will never stop in life. It travels with you everywhere you go in life. It’s a life lesson. Just because I gave in to the temptation doesn’t mean you or anyone else has to.