What Powdered-sugar Doughnuts?

What Powdered-Sugar Doughnuts?

You may be sure that your sin will find you out.

Numbers 32:23

I grew up in a family with seven children. Food wasn’t necessarily in short supply, but you did not want to wait around for seconds, because there might not be any. And when it came to a delicacy like powdered-sugar doughnuts, a guy could not be too careful.

On one particular day, my mother brought home a big bag of those snow-white temptations. I watched as she opened a cabinet above the kitchen counter and placed the bag on the top shelf.

“Can I have one?” I asked.

Mom shook her head. “They’re for tomorrow.”

No matter how hard I tried, I could not get those delicacies out of my mind. So later that night, when the house was quiet, I crept into the kitchen, slid a chair over to the counter, climbed up, and opened the cabinet. I felt as if I were cracking a safe. I reasoned that, even if I opened the bag, no one would know who did it, and I could get away with the caper. But who can eat just one powdered-sugar doughnut? I lost count after three.

Then, without warning, all the lights in the kitchen came on. I spun around to see my father standing in the doorway.

He stared up at me as I quivered on the countertop. “What are you doing? Eating the powdered-sugar doughnuts?”

I held out my hands and said, “What doughnuts?”

Unfortunately, there was powdered sugar all over them, my face, and the front of my jeans.

I was so busted!

—Max Elliot Anderson

O Father, please teach me to be transparent today, before you and the others around me. Help me to know that you are aware of everything I do, both good and bad, and that I can never hide my sins from you. Amen.