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Key Bible Verse: The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:17).Bonus Reading: Psalm 51:1-12

Although I admired my teacher, Professor Bird, I wasn't eager to be around him the next lab period. His custom was to grade each student's lab report from the previous week in the student's presence. As I looked on nervously, Professor Bird began to find the telltale inconsistencies that wouldn't have been there had I actually performed the experiment.

Before he'd finished, I excused myself for my afternoon bus run. I could hardly see where I was driving through my bitter tears of regret. I'd been dishonest, and tried to cover it up. Deeply convicted of my wrongdoing, I knew I had to confess to Professor Bird before he left for the day. I returned to campus and waited outside his office until no one else was around. Then, as I wept, I told him how deceitful I'd been.

Professor Bird put his arm around my shoulders and told me that I wasn't the first to fabricate experimental results but that I'd learned an important lesson. As we sat on the steps of the science building and watched the setting sun, Professor Bird provided just the assurance that this distraught college freshman needed to hear: God loved me and had forgiven me. [Charles redid the experiment and went on to become a chemistry professor.]

—Charles Baldwin in College Faith

My Response: I felt release from a sense of guilt when …

Thought to Apply: We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.—C.S. LEWIS (British scholar)

Adapted from College Faith: 150 Christian Leaders and Educator Share Faith Stories from Their Student Days (Andrews Univ. Press, 2002) by permission.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Help me, Lord, to identify and confess my sins so You can offer forgiveness and bring healing.

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