Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Matthew 19:19 NIVUK). 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 story of a high school basketball team in his book called Integrity. The team had been having a great season, winning 21 games and losing only five. In the final, they had a dramatic victory, coming from behind to win the game. But later they realised that one of the players, who had played for just 45 seconds at the end of a single match, was actually ineligible to compete. The team was way ahead in that particular game, so the player couldn’t really have affected the outcome, but their coach, Cleveland Stroud, reported the mistake anyway and surrendered the trophy they’d won at the final.

Stroud had this to say: ‘We didn’t know he was ineligible at the time; we didn’t know it until a few weeks ago. Some people have said we should have just kept quiet about it, that it was just forty-five 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 word and action will either add to or take away from our character, so it’s important that we choose the honesty route. 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, strive for honesty and integrity in everything you do.

What Now?

At the start of today, ask God to guide your words and actions through the day, so that not only would you be worthy of the respect of others, you also would gain more self-respect. Make the choice for honesty and integrity in everything you do.