What Do You Carry With You Daily?

Most of us do, I like to think, but a few of us do not.You won't find it in the bottom of woman's bag, nor any man's wallet. Not in a pocket, jeans, coat or otherwise. But it's on display almost constantly. What is it, you may be asking? In a word, INTEGRITY.

Proverbs 10:9 He who walks with integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will become known. KJV

Merriam-Webster describe integrity as: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic value. INCORRUPTIBILITY. I am constantly amazed at the lack of integrity in today's society. It's astonishing the way some folk are today.

Three examples come to mind.
Just yesterday, there were a couple of abandoned buggies at my local grocers that charges for the use of their carts. A quarter. No big deal. I got one and was glad that I didn't have to go through the abyss otherwise known as my purse to retrieve the coin. A guy who pulled up almost simultaneously by me apparently felt the same way as he sprinted to the other, once sighted. We shop, check out and bag our items at almost the same time. Once outside the door, I remove my items and leave the buggy for the next person, because I didn't have to pay for it, as it was abandoned. This guy had more groceries, rolled the cart to his vehicle, returned it, and pushed the mechanism to get a quarter back. Now mind you, he didn't pay the low rental price of .25c, but he felt the need to take the money anyway.
Tellers in banks and credit unions, along with cashiers in stores run into people with no integrity all the time. When given too much change, they call it a blessing. I think not! I blessing for you shouldn't have the ability to be job loss for me. It's easy to get confused when there's a sea of people and their gripping and complaining, You tend to want to pick up the pace. That extra $10 you got some clerk may have to pay back. Or worse. But the integrity lacking person never thinks beyond his or her own circumstance. I worked with a woman who had to pay several hundred dollars back, because one of our very own coworkers couldn't resist helping themselves to her cash box. No integrity whatsoever! And went on to work with her until they finally caught up to the culprit. Side by side. No qualms, no remorse. NOTHING!
Which brings me to the current inhabitant of the oval. I've never seen such a lack of integrity in any sphere in all my years on this terrestrial ball. To lie with impunity, day in, day out. To be effective in gaslighting one third of the American populace. To say whatever, whenever to keep his base pumped.

And by his base, besides the low intellect, non reading crew, I'm also thinking of the Paula White's, the Darrell Scott's and the Franklin Graham's. They've sold their souls and hocked their integrity for supreme court gains, treating people at the border like crap, and rolling back women's rights. I can't believe how integrity seems to mean so little today. I can only pray that this new normal, of lying and cheating others for whatever gain does not catch on more than it has. I pray we never become anesthetized to the crazy.

Let's not forget to teach our wee ones to have integrity. Let's especially remind our young adults. The lack of it is not new, as there is nothing new under the sun. But in my humble opinion, it's vanishing, slowly. Little things like keeping your word. I believe and was taught, word is bond. You do not commit yourself to anything and do not follow through. Try not to get caught up in the moment and commit to something, if you later will regret it. Because the bottom line is no matter how you feel, you said you would. On the job, in friendships, in relationships, in church, EVERYWHERE. Say what you mean and mean what you say. It's all about integrity.

I'm happy to say that most I associate with have integrity. I wouldn't be able to deal with them if they did not. We all know people who don't however. While I find it hard to be straight up disagreeable to people who've not harmed me personally, I treat them with a long handled spoon, as my beloved mom used to say. Hi and by. The ones whom are family members, my reaction is pretty much the same. Some people you just must love from afar.

So those of you whom this doesn't apply to, we cool. The rest, if it hit you, it wasn't meant to miss you.

Ninakupenda