Do the right thing.

This morning I was exercising in our garage when I noticed something out of place. I looked at a rack of screwdrivers hanging over my work bench and saw one of them was out of place. This screwdriver was not in its place and was leaning over on the other screwdrivers (see the picture to the right). I know for a fact that I didn't put this screwdriver back like that so it must have been one of my boys. One of them worked on his bike yesterday afternoon so I am guessing, in a hurry, he did not take the time to put the screwdriver up correctly.

The ironic thing about this is that Misty and I harp on our kids about doing things right the first time. The mantra that is repeated regularly around our house is "Do it right or do it again." We have tried to instill in our boys the necessity to do things right and to do them right the first time. Our harping this mantra at our kids is not so much about keeping them from redoing their work as it is about them doing the right thing every time. When we constantly do the right thing, we never have to question what we should do in a certain situation. There is no question about whether we break the rules this one time and not do the right thing, but instead we know we will do the right thing without even thinking about it. This is the lesson we are hoping our sons will take away from our years of "training" or harping, whichever you want to call it.

The real challenge is not always doing the right thing, but doing the right thing when it is the difficult thing to do. We will inevitably be faced with situations in this life that require us to do what is right, even though it is not easy or popular. When faced with those situations, the regular and constant practice of doing what is right will give you the confidence to stick to your guns. 

We live in a society that no longer has a fixed view of absolute truth. Because our society no longer sees truth as absolute, truth is left to be determined by the situation. It can be dictated by societal pressures. It can be determined by the prevailing cultural winds. According to the world truth, and essentially what is right, can change depending on what is popular on a given day. But God's Word tells us something else. God's Word tells us that if we are a follower of Christ, then our moral compass is dictated by Him and His Word. Not by the pressures of a situation. Not by what is popular in our culture. Not by what is easy, but by what is right according to our faith. By doing what is right we can expect to receive God's blessings. 1 Kings 11 is one of many places in the Bible that reinforces this idea. When God gave Jeroboam 10 tribes of Israel to rule, God promised blessings on Jeroboam's family line for doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. This is one of many examples where God promises to bless us for doing what is right. We can expect when we do what is right, regardless of the backlash from man, that we will receive blessings from God.

My encouragement to you today is to make it a daily, minute by minute, habit of doing what is right, regardless of the situation. When you do, you'll never have to question how to respond to a situation and you'll reap the blessings of God for doing what is right, not what is easy.


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