Well Chosen
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 22:1
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.
It needs to be said that being wealthy is not sinful. Abraham was a rich man. There is a tendency to think that every prosperous person has gotten where they are by compromising and fudging on morality if not outright flaunting their lack of virtue. Money, as we all know, has inherent temptations built into it. Loving it is the root of all evil. It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom. The wealthy are prone to trust in their largesse and not the Lord. All of that can be true while, at the same time, it can be true that a rich man can be a righteous man.
So, the point of this proverb is not that every opportunity to grow one’s net worth is also a fork in the road where we choose between good and evil. Every profitable financial decision is not a choice between riches and a good name. But there are moments when that is exactly the choice being made. There are points in time when you have to pick a side. At some point, you will choose to keep your character or trade it for cash.
A while back I had purchased at our Lowes store. While loading my truck, I kept thinking the total the checker charged me didn’t seem right to me. After I finished putting the materials in the bed of my truck, I examined the receipt. While looking it over, I realized that she had missed some of the smaller items I had on the bottom of the lumber cart and I wasn’t charged for them.
I carried those things back into the store, stood in line, and when it was my turn I set them on the counter. She looked at them and then at me and asked, “Is there a problem?”
“Well,” I replied, “You missed these when you checked me out and I wasn’t charged for them.”
For a moment she seemed unsure what to do next.
“So, you want to pay for these?”
“Yes, of course.”
She shook her head and said, “People don’t usually come back because they were undercharged. It is when they are overcharged that they come back. I’m surprised that you did that.”
“Well, I just feel like my integrity is worth more than what I would have saved myself by not paying for this stuff.”
Value your character, integrity, and good name more than money in the bank. Even if no one else knows, a clear conscience is worth much.
