Integrity

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 NIV

My Sunday school class of second, third and fourth graders was 100% sure it was stealing. The beauty of this age is how they see things in black and white. I think God lets us see the world more clearly through their eyes. What a mistake to assume you cannot learn from a child, after all the kingdom of God is entered like a child. I see why.

We were talking about how God wants us to confess our sins and when we don’t we are guilty and we feel guilty. We talked about how it was one thing to confess to God and another to confess to another person. We were emphasising the word repentance which mean agreeing with God and then doing the right thing. One of the discussion questions was, “what if you went to a store and bought some toys and when you got home and realized the cashier didn’t charge you enough for them, what should you do and why?” They were sure you should pay. You should go to the store and tell the cashier that you weren’t charged enough and you wanted to pay for the toy.

“What if they said, don’t bother?” No they insisted you still need to pay. If you don’t, the class all agreed it was just like stealing even if it wasn’t your mistake, even if it was inconvenient to return to the store and pay.

“What does it feel like when you do the right thing?”

“Great!”

This week I went to the store and bought picture frames for a fund raiser for a church mission trip. We are auctioning off photos the teens took during their last trip. When I got home after a long day at work, I discovered the cashier hadn’t charge me enough. “How inconvenient!” I thought. “What if I take the time to go back and they say, don’t worry about it?” Then I heard one of the little boys in my class say with certainty. “It’s stealing!”

“Yes, he is right, it is stealing.” I decided to go back the next day. If I am a God follower I need to have integrity and integrity starts with the little things. It is simple enough for a child to understand. Funny how with adults the lines sometimes gets blurred? Thank God for the little children. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking.

I took my receipt in and told the cashier I was undercharged and I wanted to pay for another frame. I had a reply ready if she said, “don’t bother.” I planned to tell her my grade school kids that I help teach Sunday school are sure it is stealing and I need to have integrity if I want to faithfully teach them.

But she didn’t. She took my money and smiled and said, “thank you very much for doing this.”

How did it feel?

Great!