Strive For Integrity

Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ (Matthew 19:19 NIV) But in order to love yourself, you must first be able to respect yourself. And self-respect is based on personal integrity.

Author Ted Engstrom tells the following story in his book called Integrity: ‘For Coach Cleveland Stroud and the Bulldogs of Rockdale County High School, Georgia, USA it was their championship season: 21 wins and 5 losses on the way to the Georgia Boys Basketball Tournament, then a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the final. But the new glass trophy case outside the high school gymnasium didn’t house the trophy for long! The Georgia High School Association disallowed Rockdale County’s championship win after school officials admitted that a player who was scholastically ineligible had played for 45 seconds in the first game. “We didn’t know he was ineligible at the time; we didn’t know it until a few weeks ago,” Coach Stroud said. “Some people have said we should have just kept quiet about it, that it was just 45 seconds and the player wasn’t an impact player. But you’ve got to do what’s honest and right and what the rules say. I told my team that people forget the scores of basketball games; they don’t ever forget what you’re made of.”’

Every honest or dishonest word and action either adds to or takes away from your character. That’s what the Bible means when it says, ‘The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.’ So today, work towards integrity in all your dealings.