Today I have a few thoughts running through my head as I try to share a meaningful devotional with you. One is the thought of doing the right thing at all times. In 2012, we have a year of national campaigning and elections. For those seeking office there is opportunity to speak solely for potential gain. Will the candidates say the right thing or just say what is right for the moment? Okay, I’ll leave that one alone. 
Going back to doing the right thing; did you know online dictionaries report each year on what words were looked up the most on their site? For 2005, a few of those words were refugee, pandemic, tsunami, and levee. Because of global catastrophic events that year, we can easily understand why those words were searched.
Just to go a little deeper to my “nerdy” side, the most popular lookup for the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for 2005 was the word integrity. The definition given is: “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.” It’s used to describe those who are unwilling to be bribed or morally corrupted. Why was that word on the top of the list? Could it be because integrity is so lacking that many don’t know what it looks like in someone’s life?
The word God gave us has an example of integrity in the life of Joseph. Potiphar had put Joseph in charge of overseeing “his house and all that he had” Gen. 39:5. When Joseph was tempted by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph refused, saying, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (v.9). Joseph knew what God’s standards were, and he chose to stand for right at the cost of his freedom.
Integrity, look it up in Genesis 39. We each can live it out in God’s strength. We can consider in what ways we’ve been a person of integrity even when it was tough? Let us think about whose standards are we going to live by and what we may need to change?
When we ask ourselves these same questions we discover this sinner needs a lot of work. As the phrase goes, I fall short of the glory of God. Leave a comment on how you’ll go live a life where your legacy is rich with integrity. Or just share this devotional with a friend on Facebook or Twitter.
See you next Sunday,
MJ