Inspiring Change Every Day with Grace
Integrity in the Mud
You are underpaid and overworked. Your salary runs out by the second week of the month. Your rent is due, and your phone keeps lighting up with bills, family needs, and stuff.
Then the temptation creeps in, he walks in to the office requesting you to carry out an off record deal. She phones in requesting you to minimize the assessment and change the figures, and guess what? She says “I will sort you out.”
Just this once. You justify it because everyone’s doing it. You need the money to sort out essential needs. So why not? Then you go ahead.
Subsequently, what was supposed to be a one time thing, now becomes a habit, then a tag. At first, you told yourself it was survival, just a means to get by. But over time, it shaped how you see the world and how the world sees you.
You become the person people approach when they want things done off the record. You stop flinching when integrity is compromised.
Slowly, the guilt fades, the sense of pride you once had in doing things right, the respect you held for yourself, the legacy you hoped to build, elude right before your eyes.
The harm has already been caused to your integrity, and even if you choose to go back to the right path, the stain of your past decisions might still follow you like a shadow.
Look, integrity isn’t a luxury for the rich or a slogan for posters. It’s a choice; a hard one and yes, sometimes it hurts to do the right thing.
You might lose an opportunity. You might get sidelined. You might watch others rise faster. But when you build a life on principles, you don’t just rise, you stand. And when the storm comes (because it always does), you don’t fall apart because your foundation isn’t for sale.
There are people who’ve walked away from free and illegally-got money and lived to see doors open for them that they never imagined. Employers who noticed. Clients who returned. Peace of mind that can’t be bought. Reputation that money can’t buy.
That’s the reward of a clean conscience, it shows up in the mirror and walks with you long after the offer is gone. So, anytime you are tempted to bend the rules, remember “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches …” Proverbs 22:1 KJV
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