Guest Blogger - Olivia Dahl Cobian

 Each week I will be featuring a guest that I know and respect to help me keep some perspective.  
I thought I'd share their perspective with you too...I hope you will enjoy!  

Here is what our first guest, my dear cousin Olivia Dahl Cobian has to share:

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH TO REQUIRE HONESTY?

            At the Wendy’s drive thru on Friday, they gave us back a nickel extra.  Five cents.  I hesitated for a moment.  Does it really matter?  Will anybody care if I return the money that doesn’t belong to me?  If it were five dollars, I’d return it.  Fifty dollars? Definitely.  But five cents?  Is it worth going back?  We’d gone through the drive thru to save time . . . 

We parked.  I got out of the car and ran back inside the restaurant.  I interrupted the cashier, put the nickel on the counter and said, “We got too much change from the drive thru.”  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I felt stupid.  “Thanks.”  I said and left. 

I returned to the car—to the six little eyes that see everything, that still think I know everything and that count on me to do right.  The responsibility for those three little souls is sometimes overwhelming.  As we talked about it, I knew the five cents mattered.  I knew that I cared whether or not I returned it, and that I cared that my children knew why I returned it.  I want them to know that morality isn’t relative.  It doesn’t matter how great or small the matter is.  What matters is that we’re as perfectly honest as we can be.

Today I read a quote that helped me realize why I stopped for five cents:

“Honesty is the trait that connects the promises we have made to the Lord to our everyday actions.”

                                                                                    ~Richard J. Maynes

Because I’m a Christian, because I want to emulate Christ, and because I need His help so desperately in my daily life as a mother, I had to return the nickel.  Because I want my children to know and honor Him, because I want them to know the peace only He can bring, I had to teach them why a nickel matters.

 Thanks Liv!
Pictured with Olivia is Lilianna, Olivia's sweet girl.  Lili has two brothers with another brother coming soon.  You can read more about Olivia and Lili's life

HERE.