Honor Boxes

For the last 20 years, I have driven past a small sign announcing homemade jams for sale. Just off the main road sits a small table at the end of a dirt driveway where homemade jams and jellies are for sale. I passed the table as I have always done, but this time, I turned around and went back. It was time to find out what was on the table.

When I got out of my car, I saw a small wooden table where jars of pumpkin butter, apricot, and berry jams waited for customers. Each jar was decorated with a little bow since it was Christmas time. On the table was a handwritten note announcing the cost of the items along with a small box to place your money. No one was there. I bought several jars and dropped a twenty in the box.

The most impacting thing I saw on the table was a small box with a slot where you could deposit your money. I named it the “honor box.” 

Every transaction of life has an honor box somewhere. While the last thing on my mind would be robbing from what I perceived to be a little granny making jam, there are areas in my life where passing the honor box test might actually be a challenge. Maybe it is discovering something a speaker or writer used from a book or article I wrote quoting me verbatim without giving me credit for original authorship.  It can happen when I pretend to listen to a conversation waiting just long enough for my turn to interrupt and give my two cents worth of input, not really hearing what the person was trying to express. My list of honor box failures goes on.

Every person has honor boxes lining the path of their life. Most of these are not recognizable by others. They are placed in the private moments of our life-experience where no one but God is watching.  They resemble an unguarded jam stand.  We can take advantage of the honor they offer if we have not allowed God to have His way with our character. Like the honor box at the roadside stand, each honor box requires that we make a deposit before we move on. Those deposits or the lack of them will direct the course of our life.