Cost Of Grace, Simply Too High!

Omar aka "Bombero" , one of the men in my Alpha program, Aqueduct Race Track, wanted to stop using profanity. He asked his friend Ricardo to help him break the habit. The two hatched an aggressive plan. Each Thursday "bombero" would tell Ricardo how many times he'd cussed during the week—and put 25. cents in a jar in the tack room for every bad word then they would show it to me.

The first week Bombero paid for $25 worth of profanity! Over several weeks, the amount contributed shrank a bit, but Bombero wasn't winning the battle. So Ricardo changed the rules: now Ricardo would pay the bill for Bombero's bad words!

The following Thursday, when it was obvious that Bombero had missed the mark again, Ricardo took out a check. "Bombero," he said, "Your sin will still cost someone, but for you it's free. It's called grace." He made a check out to Bombero, signed his name, and left the amount blank. "Just fill in the numbers," Ricardo told his friend. "Next week there'll be more grace."

The first week it cost Ricardo $25. The second week, Ricardo check was written for $5. But the third week? There was no check. For Bombero, the cost of grace was simply too high to continue hurting his friend.