Page 24 - June 2015 Catalyst

SETTING BORDERS
By Joe Grimaud | Continued From Page 6
often did. As a matter of fact, I even sold news- papers on that same street at the age of eleven. But this particular day I was using my five dollars to Christmas shop. As I wandered up and down the toy aisles I ran into a friend who happened to be in my Sunday School Class. As we went along together he showed me how after we had bought something we could then see something else and drop it into our shopping bag without payingforit. Itookthebaitandfollowedsuit.
My brothers and sisters were in for some un- usually good presents that Christmas. And, of course, my wary parents wondered how I had gotten my five dollars to go so far. They began to question me, which led to a number of lies as to how I had been able to shop so
Frugally. They f inally gave up and let me alone. But God and my conscience did not leave me alone. It bothered me all the way into my adult- hood. I remember that one of the items I had stolen that Christmas had come from WT Grant’s a five and dime store. For years I felt like I should go to a WT Grant store and confess my sins and pay enough to pay for the item. But I never did, and when WT Grant went bankrupt and closed down, it was almost as if I had caused the bankruptcy.
But because this bothered me so much I began to set borders in my life, which I dared not cross. I did not want to feel any more guilt and con- viction. So later in life and during my military
service I was working as a clerk typist in the Intelligence Division at Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas. After I had been there for some time, I was given what was called a Class “C” card. This card allowed me to go to the on base Class “C” store (an office supply store) and pick up supplies for the office. The office supply store was very much like a big Office Depot where you could pick up anything you wanted and take it back to the office for office use. The Class “C” store would ring up whatever you got and it would be applied to the Intelligence Division’s budget. No money changed hands.
Well it happened at that time that I was going to night school after work at Washburn University. The night school projects required the use of a good deal of paper, notebooks, and other items all of which were available in the Class “C” store. I had a decision to make. Was I going to get what I needed for school from the Class “C” store or not? I was only making one hundred eighty dollars a month and no one would know the dif- ference, and probably would not even care. But I cared. I did not want any more guilt. So I de- cided that I would not even take a ballpoint pen home from the office to use in my schoolwork. The border was drawn and I stuck to it.
There have been many occasions since then where I had to set borders in my life. And they have helped me to be the person I want to be. Some of these borders were what I participated
24 CityLight.org
June 2015