Breaking the Borrowing

Have you ever borrowed something because you didn't want to buy it and then break what you borrowed so you just ended up buying it anyway?

It is strange how you feel when you break something you own yourself and when you break something you have on loan from someone else.

I would have been upset had we just bought it and broke it but some how it was worse that it belonged to someone else who took the risk to lend it to you.

That is the risk isn't it when you loan something out that it might not come back in the same shape as when it went out.

When I let someone borrow some thing of mine I do expect them to take good care of it.  To watch over it to treat it with care.  When I get something back in worse condition I think ill of that person.  I don't trust them, I think how could they borrow this and give it back in this condition?

We can almost perceive that if they treat my stuff like that - then they must view me that way?

Okay maybe not.  Sometimes people don't think they just use something not considering how it looked when they got it.

My daughter at the age of 4 was allowed to wear someone else's outfit.  It was a special kind of outfit.  It was a little bit big and by the end of the evening the cuffs were muddy and the material was of such that I was afraid to clean it myself.  I ended up giving it back via a third person who said not to worry that she would explain.   I still think of that and hope she did explain and that I would have washed it, if I had known how to wash that kind of material.

The Bible says to be not a borrower or lender.  It also says to give when someone asks, in fact to give more than they ask.  Is this a contradiction?  I don't think so.

Ultimately the Biblical message is - don't lend something out to someone without being willing to actually give it to them.  If someone asks you for something they are in need of give it to them freely not expecting it back.  In this way you are giving them more than they asked for.  If they give it back to you take it back as a gift or say no it is yours.

I am not saying this is easy and I still say if I borrowed something I should give it back in better condition then it was given to me.  So if I break something that was 30 years old then I should go buy a new one as close to the original as possible. This isn't always possible, but it should be our goal.