by Steve Higginbotham
(Recently) , 11 year-old Nick Smith entered a contest for the chance to win $50,000.00. All Nick had to do was shoot a 3 inch hockey puck through a 3 ½ in hole from 90 feet away. Nick took careful aim, hit the puck with his hockey stick and to everyone’s amazement, the puck went in the hole! It was a one in a million shot that earned this 11 year-old boy $50,000.00…or did it?
You see, Nick actually didn’t take the shot, his twin brother Nate did. Why? Because when Nick’s name was called to take the shot, he was not in the arena, so his identical twin brother stood in for him. No one would have known, except Nick and Nate’s father. Well, on Monday Nick and Nate’s father let the cat out of the bag and admitted to the officials that Nate, not Nick actually took the shot. When asked why he would reveal this secret, the father said “We thought honesty was the best policy, and we wanted to set a good example for our kids.” Again, to ABC News, the father said, “I just think honesty is more important than any prize or money you could get.”
All I can say is, “May their tribe increase!” Now for a question: Would you forfeit $50,000.00 over a technicality that no one would ever notice? Or to cut to the chase, is your integrity for sale? Give it some thought.
-Steve Higginbotham preaches for the Karns church of Christ, near Knoxville, TN. This came from “Preaching Helps.”
Integrity is an important trait, not just for the Lord’s people, but for all. It is great that this father sought to teach his children the importance of telling the truth when it would just be easy and keep quiet and take the money, which I am sure they could have used. As Steve has said, I echo the thought “May their tribe increase!”