Might need a 'get out of jail free' card

When the mail comes everyday, Josh or I will bring it in and I will sort through it. I put all the junkmail in the recycle bin and gather all of the bills and put them in my bill holder.



(cute huh?)

Then at some point I will go back and organize them by date. As the date gets closer, I will pay it. Yeah I'm not one of those that gets it in the mail then immediately pays it or gets it ready to be mailed off. The 'touch it once' rule doesn't work well for me.

Anyway, today I went through and organized them and planned on paying the ones due within the next couple of days.

So, I opened one and immediately began silently freaking out over the large passed due balance that caught my eye. My mind starts racing and I'm like what the heck happened?!? This is impossible. No way this is right. It took a few seconds before I realized that I should stop worrying about what had gone wrong and check out who this freaking thing belonged to. "Oh luck, please don't fail me now"as I made that glance. Just as I was hoping to find, the name on the front was neither Josh's nor mine. Whew......then.........Eeeeeek!

I hurriedly put the bill back in its envelope and threw it on the table next to me that is more than an arm length away.

What do I do now? I've just opened someone else's mail. Usually I'll just put stuff with other people's names on it in the junkmail pile for recycling. But I can't do that this time. This is a bill that obviously needs some serious tending to. But if I give it to them, they'll know that I opened it and, honest mistake or no, that's illegal. Yikes!

So after calming down a bit and weighing my options, I have decided (with the help of a favorite friend) to tape it up, put a nice little note on it about how this accidentally was put in our mailbox and without double checking and rechecking who it belonged to prior to opening the little booger...it got opened, then put it in the correct mailbox and hopefully be done with it.

Dear God,
I just ask that you provide our dear neighbors with a little more compassion today than others to keep them from sending me to jail.
Thanks and love ya :)