This week I read a story about a young pastor who boarded a bus early one Monday morning. As he took his seat, after paying his bus fare, he realized that the driver had given him too much change back. Some people would ignore the oversight or just slip the extra change in their pocket and considered it a blessing. But this young pastor knew that would be wrong.
At the next stop, the pastor walked to the front of the bus and said to the driver, "Excuse me sir, but I believe you gave me too much change and I wanted to return it to you."
The driver looked up and said, "Pastor, I did not make a mistake. I was at your church last night and I heard your sermon on honesty. I wanted to see if you practice what you preach!"
"Live in such a way that you won't mind selling your pet parrot to the town gossip." - Will RogersWill Rogers captures what having integrity means, we need to have nothing in our lives that we are ashamed of or have to cover up. Personal integrity is something that we develop on a daily basis, it starts with each thought and action we take. Is what we say and what we do building character or tearing it down?
It is my prayer that the "private" me matches up with the "public" me! I want to be able to pass with flying colors when an unbeliever puts me to the test....
...how about you, what would you have done on that bus?
1 Kings 9:4 "Walk before Me ...in integrity of heart and in uprightness."
I really enjoyed this entry. This is exactly the lesson I tried to teach my children as they were growing up.
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