I couldn\u2019t pass by the display in the middle of the aisle. After all, the fingernail polish was priced 75% off. Two bottles ended up in the child carrier area of my basket. I paid for my basket full of groceries, unloaded my groceries into my car, grabbed my purse and then\u2026I see that nail polish nestled under my purse. Argh! Oh yes, the enemy whispered in my ear \u201cIt\u2019s not even worth the walk back to pay for it!\u201d But I\u2019ve heard that voice way too many times to know he is the lying, tempting, and cheating thief. It wasn\u2019t even tempting for me to simply put them in my purse and carry on. I had to turn around, take that long walk back, get in the line and pay for them. AND I wasn\u2019t tempted to NOT put my grocery cart in the cart corral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not looking for applause or \u201catta\u2019 girl\u201d comments. I\u2019m simply sharing how sweet it is to live with a clear conscience, with no regrets. I\u2019d like to say I have this way of living down pat. It\u2019s a daily work out \u2013 to guard our minds, our hearts, our attitudes, and our reputation. I live and learn and the longer I\u2019ve lived, I\u2019ve come to know that character is what matters most. It has so many rewards. I\u2019ve lived this plan for way too many years to turn back now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Character is the subject of this blog today. J.C. Watts, former politician, said, \u201cCharacter is doing the right thing when nobody\u2019s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that\u2019s right is to get by, and the only thing that\u2019s wrong is to get caught\u201d. And that is so very true. Character is the one thing no one can take from us. It is what we hold dear. It should be a non-negotiable core value. You know the deal. We pick up something in one aisle of the store and buyer\u2019s remorse sets in. We decide we don\u2019t really need that item after all. Then, rather than taking the item, let\u2019s say lettuce, back to the produce section, we slip it in the laundry detergent aisle. No big deal. Our logic says: \u201cAfter all, those store clerks are paid to put stuff back where it belongs\u201d. Or, how about returning that extra change that we received from the cashier and telling her she overpaid us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are the life rules that we play by? The ones that are just obvious because \u201cthey\u2019re the rules\u201d, or, though inconvenienced, the ones that are simply just the right thing to do? I think about our children who watch our every move. They pay far more attention to what we do rather than what we say. When we are people of honor, integrity, character, sportsmanship, appreciation, and courtesy, we are demonstrating the lessons of life, and rules won\u2019t even be necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Never has it been clearer to me, that character should take the highest priority when it comes to being trustworthy and credible to our children, our peers, our neighbors, our constituents\u2026\u2026but most of all\u2026.to God. He has a front row seat in our lives. Our actions DO speak louder than words. It makes God so proud of His kids when He sees them \u201cdoing the right thing when no one is looking.\u201d God is ALWAYS looking. And even if there were no consequences, no laws, no fear of any reprisals for our actions, when we do the RIGHT THING in any situation, I expect that He beams from ear to ear with pride and joy about His kids!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Proverbs 20:7 \u201cThe one who lives with integrity is righteous; his children who come after him will be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I couldn\u2019t pass by the display in the middle of the aisle. After all, the fingernail polish was priced 75% off. Two bottles ended up in the child carrier area of my basket. I paid for my basket full of groceries, unloaded my groceries into my car, grabbed my purse and then\u2026I see that nail…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18788,21023,21024],"tags":[2865,11028,1210,711,21021,21020,1769,11566,7956,21022,40,713,8079,19239,9619,18887,2024],"class_list":["post-14509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-doing-the-right-thing","category-j-c-watts","tag-actions-speak-louder","tag-applause","tag-blog","tag-character","tag-character-doing-the-right-thing","tag-character-matters","tag-christian","tag-clear-conscience","tag-core-value","tag-credible","tag-inspiration","tag-integrity","tag-j-c-watts","tag-non-negotiable-2","tag-proverbs-207","tag-temptation","tag-trustworthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14511,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14509\/revisions\/14511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}