Newspapers vs. the Closet

When I was 14 I had an afternoon paper route.  The schedule was like this:
3:00 Come home from school.  Try to stretch out in front of the TV and eat a snack
3:02 Mother "reminds" me I am supposed to deliver newspapers
3:10 Done eating snack.  Go get stack of papers from the porch and fold them while watching TV
3:30 Finish folding newspapers but go really slow on the last few so I can watch more TV
3:32 Mother "reminds" me that my route is big and I won't make it on time if I don't leave now
3:34 Grab a snack and complain.  Try to whine long enough to finish the TV show
3:50 Suddenly realize how late it is.  It takes two hours to do my route and 6:00 is the deadline
4:00 Rush around furiously trying to get out the door.  Scold mother for not telling me how late it was.

Now one particular day I came home and my mother was gone.  It was a rare occasion, which was usually celebrated by gorging myself on the marshmallows hidden in the back of the fridge and a solid peaceful hour of cartoons.  The very thought of having the whole house to myself with absolutely no adult supervision made my imagination soar.  After a chocolate covered chocolate sprinkled Ovaltine ice cream sundae I had the perfect idea.  Chad's closet.

You see my older brother Chad was on a mission in Tennessee.  When he was leaving he took everything in his room and boxed it up and stacked the boxes in his closet.  There were boxes labelled "games", "books", "magic tricks", and "personal".  To a 14 year old kid every label screamed "Open me and loot!" except when my brother left he made me solemnly promise not to touch those boxes.  I would never dare when my mother was home, but this was the perfect afternoon to try.

I walked into my brother's room, opened the closet and eyed the boxes.  Oh it was wrong, but the timing was so right.  I knew it was the wrong choice.  Those papers were sitting on the front porch, but maybe just maybe it would be ok to do something wrong.  I picked the box labelled "books".

Then I had a thought.  In primary we used to talk about such simple scenarios: "Henry wants a piece of gum from the store, but he doesn't have any money.  Should Henry steal the gum?"  And as small children we would emphatically say no.  The problem is when I got older I realized things weren't so well defined.  Is it ok to fight a bully?  Is it ok to tell someone you aced the test when they ask how you did and you know it will make them sad?  Primary is not very realistic for the types of choices we face in real life.

I had always been annoyed with the primary stories.  Not only were the choices obvious, but the blessings so immediate.  "Henry decides not to steal the gum, and that night the Holy Ghost made Henry feel all happy inside because he chose the right".  As if.  "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (1 Corinthians 13:11).  I am so done with stupid primary examples.

And yet here I was facing a choice that I knew was unquestionably wrong.  I was supposed to be doing papers.  That was the right choice.  If I couldn't Choose The Right when facing a simple primary scenario, how would I ever handle the more complicated decisions?  I closed the closet door.  I decided then and there that I would keep my promise to my brother, no matter how badly I was tempted.  I got the papers, folded them, and headed out the door, feeling proud of myself.  Proud might be the right word because deep inside I was miffed that no one would ever know how righteous I had chosen to be.

There's more to the story.  As I was rounding the last street my mother came up in the car.  When she got home and I was no where to be found she was worried.  Apparently she panicked until she saw the newspaper strap in the garbage.  She then knew I had left to do newspapers all on my own.  She wanted me to know she was proud of me so she brought me a candy bar (king size, no less).  As I finished the papers I realized that I was blatantly blessed for choosing the right in an obvious scenario.  Perhaps every scenario is really simple, we don't see it.  "For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil" (Moroni 7:16).  One goal in life is to see the complicated situations in the Light of Christ until they are childishly obvious.  Maybe my primary teachers were on the right track after all.