Hey there and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled A Life of Integrity was written by Wyn Collier.

A bell mutai, a Kenyan runner competing in a grueling international cross-country race was mere yards from victory.

His lead, secure.

Confused by the course's signage, and thinking he'd already crossed the finish line,

however, Mutai stopped short.

The Spanish runner in second place, Yvonne Fernandez Anaya, saw Mutai's mistake.

Rather than take advantage and bolt past for the win, however, he caught up to Mutai,

put out his arm, and guided Mutai forward to a gold medal win.

When reporters asked Anaya why he purposely lost the race, he insisted that Mutai deserved

the win, not him.

What would be the merit of my victory?

What would be the honor of that medal?

What would my mom think of that?

As one report put it, Anaya chose honesty over victory.

Proverbs 11 says that those who desire to live honestly, who want their lives to

display faithfulness and authenticity, make choices based on what's true rather than what's expedient.

The integrity of the upright guides them. This commitment to integrity isn't only the right

way to live, but it also offers a better

life. The proverb continues, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. In the long run,

dishonesty never pays. If we abandon our integrity, short-term wins actually yield defeat. But when fidelity and truthfulness

shape us in God's power, we slowly become people of deep character who lead genuinely good

...