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Personal Finance From a Biblical Perspective

The Importance Of Integrity In The Workplace

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A while back, as I was doing my daily bible reading, I came across this passage about integrity:

You shall not have in your back differing weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house differing measures, in large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. For everyone who does these things, everyone who acts unjustly is an abomination to the Lord your God. – Deuteronomy 25:13-16

God expected the Israelites to operate with honesty and integrity both in trade and business. The picture here is of a merchant in the marketplace who, as he conducts business, carries false weights and scales, which will measure things in his favor and allow him to cheat his customers. This is similar to someone in modern times gambling with weighted dice.

Integrity - Balanced Scales

The Bible has a lot to say about having integrity, especially as you operate your business. As you can see from the verses above, and the many more that I didn’t even enclose, how we handle our business is very important.

We need to do everything with integrity and honor and honesty. In fact, the measure of success when it comes to how we deal with others – especially in business or financial matters – is not whether we were profitable, able to get our way, or even if we were able to make someone happy, but it’s if we operate with honesty and integrity.

Even if we have a business that fails, or we try an endeavor and it doesn’t work out, we can know it was a success in God’s eyes, if we operate with integrity, honesty, and godly character.

[Question: Does hard work show a lack of faith?]

Because most people in this country don’t own their own business, but in fact, work for someone else, we may feel as though these verses don’t apply to us. However we must realize that we do own a business in a sense – we own our labor, our intellect, and our abilities, and we are to use all these things with integrity for our clients. It’s just in many cases, we call our clients our boss, manager, or supervisor.

I think we have to really look at how we approach work and other things that we do in life. We need search our hearts and make sure that we are operating with integrity in all that we do (even if it causes us to lose favor with a boss that is asking us to bend the rules or fudge numbers). If we can do that then we know that we have been pleasing to God.

There’s a lot more that can be said about this, and most likely I will write about it in the future, but I just wanted to put that quick thought out there as it definitely hit me hard as I read it and thought about the consequences.

photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net

When A Waiter Gives You Free Food, Is It A Nice Gesture Or Is It Stealing?

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After going to a great Good Friday service at a local church near New Brunswick, we decided to go out for an evening meal with some of our friends. It was a lot of fun, and our party of 9 adults and 6 children made for quite the entourage!  Our waiter was very friendly, polite, and patient throughout our entire meal.

I asked to taste the broth (I was thinking a tea cup full) of matzah ball soup (having never had it) and he said he would just bring me the bowl of broth. I thought he was just being nice, since I wasn’t even sure I wanted it, and appreciated him not making a big deal about it.

After tasting the broth, and liking it, I asked him to bring me the actual matzah ball with the intention of paying for the dish. He then indicated that he wouldn’t charge me for the soup at all. At that point I leaned over and told my husband, “he must be fishing for a great tip!”

One of the people we were with then complimented the waiter on his service and he in turn said we should tell his manager since she doesn’t seem to think so. When I heard that, I really wondered if all his sucking up was indeed to get back into his manager’s good graces? I thought it was quite funny, and someone did mention it to his manager.

Not until the whole night was over did I discover that he had given out quite a few freebies that night: the kids all got ice cream, others got free cookies, and other odds and ends were missing from the bill! In all our table chatter, and parents’ keeping their children in check, I did not realize that he was busy charming each of us on his bosses’ dime!

Years ago I encountered something similar when the cashier of a bookstore would give me various discounts because she knew I was purchasing things for a good cause. Not until months later when I heard she had been fired for stealing did I realize the ramifications of her ‘good will’.

I know it may not seem like a big deal to some, but our characters are built on how we handle situations like this one. I definitely think it shows poor character that this server cost his employer money so that his tip could be better or his reputation improved.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

When experiencing situations like this I often search my own heart, seeing the frailty of my own character, and praying for God’s help so that in my heart I will want to do what’s right – not just build some reputation that is untrue.

No one has the right to mishandle someone else’s resources, regardless of how small. I would like to think, if I realized what the waiter was doing the other day I would have insisted on paying for the additional items – but honestly, since I like getting things for free, I really don’t know.

photo by digitalart

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