Evans Family

I remember when I was younger, I found a $5 bill on the ground the first day of 8th grade. As hard as I wished and prayed all summer, school was about to start again but I felt that this little finical blessing was Gods way of saying go back to school. "Then", I saw that $5 bill as mine. Not belonging to the home owner whose driveway I picked it up from. "Sorry brother Tims..." Well, As life has gone on, I have often been one to wheel and deal and take what has come my way as luck if it ever came at the expense of another. We all have had good ol' Taco Bell give us 1 too many bean burritos or find that an item has been miss priced and felt that it was all good fortune. Will, this past weekend I thought I had one of those Taco Bell moments only to find out that it was going to be one of my personal 'defining moments'.... You might be wondering at this point why I have a dumbbell as my object of choice for this discussion. SO , let me fill you in.  I have been a faithful P90X'er for the past 7 week strong and have recently purchased a pair of 20lbs dumbbells. Also, during the last 30 days we have had our home on the market to sell prior to relocating to San Diego. Thanks to Natalie's awesome decor and my green grass growing skills we have been lucky enough to show the home 5-7 times a week up until about a week ago. This sudden drop in house tours was surprising because we had just lowered the price of the home in hopes of receiving an offer. A few nights ago I sat trying to figure out why we had this sudden drop of visits while simultaneously going over the $$$ (thanks Quicken) and counting receipts (thanks Dave Ramsey) and came across the receipt for my 20 lbs dumbbells. Categorizing the different purchases brought to my attention that my 20 lbs dumbbells rang up as 10lbs'ers. Immediately I thought that I cashed in thanks to a miss priced item. Kind of similar to the Taco Bell and $5 gift for starting the 8th grade. But then it clicked. The drop in showings matched up with the purchase date of my 20lbs'ers. This is where I turned over a new leaf. I reflected upon the question in the temple recommend interview that asked about being honest with your dealings. I felt that I could easily say yes because I paid what they had the item marked for. But, realizing my total dependence on the Lord, I decided  that I would take a stand against these 'dealing misshapes'.  I quickly rummaged through the garbage in my office to find the bar code and off I went to the store. I decided against the customer service desk for fear that they would blow me off for some freak and not take my $$$ for the 20lbs'ers. I went to the self checkout line, pulled the bar code from my pocket and scanned it twice so as to now pay for the total of 40lbs of weights. Placed the bar code back into my pocket, paid the money and headed to the car. Prior to reaching the car the phone rang with Bill, our agent, informing me of 2 showings the next day and another one the following day. Thanks to these showings, we received 2 offers on the house and accepted one of them Easter morning. In all of this, the scripture in Mosiah 2 quickly came to mind, " he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you ". Looking back, perhaps the gift of an extra taco or a $5 bills was no more a gift than an opportunity to live a higher law and receive perhaps a greater reward. I guess from now on, I will take the road less traveled. 

Cheers Brian