The Day I Ruined My Perfect Attendance

James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking all of it.”

I’m about to tell a story that few people know. This is the story of how I skipped one class my senior year, ruining my perfect attendance record that I had maintained throughout high school.

It was a Friday. We lived out in a more wooded area and the smell of skunk was not unfamiliar to us. Our house did not have central heat or air, so each of our rooms had window units.

One night while I was sleeping a skunk sprayed outside my room. The smell of skunk blew in through my AC all night. I woke up the next day not thinking much about it. I had smelled skunks before. Just another day. I didn’t have a first hour class, but I would arrive a little early each day and go to my newspaper class because that teacher didn’t have a first hour either.

As I sat it the room, the teacher asked me, “Do you smell skunk?” I said, “That’s funny. A skunk sprayed outside my house last night, too.” To which she very graciously replied, “I think it’s you.”

I didn’t really know what to do. I had never missed a class in all of high school. I had perfect attendance my freshman, sophomore, and junior years. I was on track for the same accolade my senior year. So, I still went to class. Honestly, at this point I couldn’t even smell it on myself, but as I sat in my first class everyone kept making comments about the awful smell. Clearly I made the wrong decision.

Our class was right next door to a science class and the teacher, not knowing it was me, said, “Maybe they did an experiment next door.” I wasn’t about to correct her.

After that class ended, I headed straight for my car and I went back home skipping lunch and one class directly following lunch. I washed my clothes and I bathed in ketchup.

I returned to school, no longer stinking, to finish off the day, but the deed was done. I had been absent. It didn’t matter my record beforehand, I no longer had perfect attendance.

As we look at James 2:10 we are reminded that by breaking the law even once, we are lawbreakers. Only one sin makes us a sinner. And our sin separates us from a holy and just God. But, the good news is, in Jesus, salvation isn’t based on our record. Salvation is based on Him. Even with a tarnished record, we can turn to Jesus, be forgiven of our sin, and be restored to a right relationship with the Father.

Now, that’s far better than an award for perfect attendance!