THINK TOGETHER.
Would you rather be rich or poor? Why?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 28:6. Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.
I'm sure all of us answered the question above by saying we would rather be rich than poor. And that makes sense. Being poor is not usually a good thing. But too often we only look on the outside of people. We only see what a rich person has on the outside, and what a poor person doesn't have on the outside. If we're honest we tend to judge poor people as having done something wrong, that's why they are poor. And we judge rich people as better or smarter, that's why they are rich.
What we can't see with our eyes is if that person has integrity. Integrity?
Integrity is an inner quality. It means that you live your life in an honest way, always doing what you say you will do. The person with integrity doesn't trick or cheat to get ahead. They are not crooked in their ways. Now this doesn't mean that no rich people have integrity and all poor people do. But it does mean that we should value our integrity way more than we value money, or things.
Remember, Jesus himself was poor. He had to ask for everything he had – food, money, a place to sleep. But he sure did have integrity. And when Jesus added love to his integrity, wow, what a combination. If we can love others and also be honest and true, always doing what we say we will do, then we can be a powerful witness for Jesus, can't we? And with Jesus living in our hearts we already have his love in our hearts. Now we just have to learn to be people with integrity too. Of course, Jesus helps us with that too. He is always helping us to in or trust in him, trust that makes us more and more faithful to God and to others – that's integrity. That's wisdom.
Because of Jesus we can live a life of integrity.
With Jesus we can value our integrity way more than we value our stuff.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Share some real life examples from your own life where you had to put your integrity above promotion or "success." Make sure they know that you will always value their integrity over their success (for example: honest Cs in school are much more honorable than As that were earned dishonestly).
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you gave up all your riches in Heaven to come live a perfect life of integrity in my place. Thank you! Amen.
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