Ingegrity

In the church that I belong to there are organization for everyone. There is Priesthood and Relief Society for the men and women. There is primary for the younger children, and there is Young Men's and Young Women's for teenage kids.
In Young Women's there is a program called Personal Progress. The girls set goals and work on projects to help them be better, to become better. I loved it when I was young.
My niece, for one of her projects, is putting together a book about Integrity. She asked all of us in the family to write down experience that we've had with integrity. I would like to share with you what I wrote back to her.
Integrity is an important quality to have. To be honest and stay true to your standards is a hard thing to do in the world today. The world says that it's okay to cheat a little hear and there as long as you don't get caught. The world says that morals don't matter anymore. But it all does matter, and integrity is something we should still have even as we get older. The first experience I thought of when K asked us to write about one was when I was playing soft ball just after I got married. I was on First base. The next batter hit a ground ball between second and third. It was an easy ball to field and I was thrown out, or so I thought I was until the umpire called me safe. I really don't think he had seen what had happened because I was out by a long ways. I didn't hesitate I just started walking to the dug out while the other team still complained. They stopped after I sat down, and the game continued. My teammates looked at me kind of weirdly. I hadn't thought much about what I did. It was an instant reaction. I knew I was out even if I was called safe. After I sat down I started to think about what had just happened. Everyone was shocked at what I did, but really to me it was just the right thing to do. I didn't question it. I felt at pace. I felt good about what I had done. I had been taught by my parents how to have integrity when I was young. Just like saying no to drugs if you already have your answer, or have your mind made up, then it makes the decision easier to make.
Now as a parent I am trying to teach integrity to my children. One of the most recent experiences I've had with integrity and my children happened a few weeks ago. It was parent teacher conference at my oldest son's school. After all of the normal updating and telling me how he was doing with his progress, his teacher told me how impressed she was with him. She knows that my son has problems with sugar and doesn't give him candy like the other kids. But when kids bring birthday treats she doesn't stop them from giving him the treats. She said that she had been watching him all year long to see what he would do when he was given a treat. She said that without fail he would say 'thank you' and either give the treat to someone else, or put it in his pocket and tell everyone that he couldn't have sugar and his mom would trade it when he got home. He wouldn't eat it. She was impressed that at such a young age he would be able to resist the temptation of candy and do what he had been told to do, take it home to trade it for a treat he could eat. There have been times when he has eaten a treat but he always tells me when he does. He has the most integrity of any person that I know. Just by watching him my testimony of integrity increases. I am so grateful for his example to me and I hope I can have the integrity that he does.