Alaina knew all the laundry rules. She knew that the light clothes went in hot water, and the dark clothes in cold. She knew never to mix the darks and the lights together.

One day Alaina had one article that was from the dark category, and the rest were from the lights. So she thought to herself, "It's only one small article surely one time won't hurt." So, she ran the hot water and added the soap as usual; then she put the laundry with the one small dark article into the washing machine. Then she set the load running.

When Alaina returned an hour later she found to her horror and dismay that the one small dark item had ruined the whole load of laundry.

Standing there looking at the ruined load Alaina remembered something her Sunday school teacher had said when she was a little girl. "One lie may be so small that it seemingly won't hurt anyone, but in the end it will always negatively affect someone including you".

Just like that one small dark article it only happened once. But once was all it took to ruin a load of laundry. Even if you only did it once, a lie can and will cause damage.