Today's Devotional

July 9, 2009

Subject: Why It's Important To Live With Integrity

Psalm 32:10-11 "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart."

I waited a while before I made any comment on the Steve McNair situation because it looked kind of ugly from the start. First of all let me make clear, good and bad things come to us all. The thing that we don't want to happen is for us to bring the bad upon ourselves. Steve McNair has undoubtedly brought much more pain to his wife and children in his death than needs to be there and the issue is integrity.

Integrity is as the graphic shows. It is the stump of the tree, but underneath it are the roots that bring about integrity. They are the values and actions that under gird your life that manifest themselves as your being a person with a life of honesty and consistency.

I'm not really sure if it started when I was a young child and a cub scout as we talked about honor, or if it was my parents "whupping" me in my formative years every time I had a breech of integrity. Perhaps it was "the code" that the Marine Corps instilled from their core values of "honor, courage and commitment." I guess it was all of these things together combined with the foundational calling to live for Jesus Christ that now causes me to trumpet the idea of living a life of integrity.

A life of integrity doesn't mean that you won't be challenged, but it does mean that when you are, you can rejoice because as I always tell my lawyer wife, whether a human court finds you guilty or not guilty, the issue is to be "not guilty" before the Lord. When that is true you can rejoice as a righteous man or woman and shout for joy.

Today, make integrity a cornerstone of your life. Not only will it make life more fulfilling for you, but it makes it so easy on your family and friends when you're gone.

Carlen