Deuteronomy 22:1-3 “1 ’You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman. 2 If your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him. 3 Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your countryman, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to neglect them. ‘“

I remember saying that when I was a child. “Finders keepers, losers weepers!” Boy, it felt good to find something really cool outside while playing or to find some money on the ground. I thought I had really scored something. It was even sweeter if it belonged to one of my siblings, and I had always eyed it. Haha.

But this passage in Deuteronomy tells us we should NOT keep it, especially if we know to whom it belongs. What a great lesson for our children to learn. We should look out for the belongings of others. We should hold on to them to keep them safe and then return them when they ask about it.

This, of course, goes directly against our flesh. We want, want, want! We see something and we want it, sometimes even it belongs to someone else. Teaching our children to control the desires of the flesh at an early age will bid them well later in life. When they get a job and are tempted to take something at work that is just “lying there,” it could be end of a career or worse. You’ve heard it said a hundred times “Honesty is the best policy.” What a perfect passage to teach your children. Isn’t the Word just awesome?