Integrity Found

A few years ago, I was privileged to partner with Toby Schneckloth on another missions tour to gain financial commitments for Speed the Light.
Toby leads the Assemblies of God Youth of Nebraska.

I wanted to bless Toby with a gift at the end of that time together and so I wrote him a check, just a small gift of thanks so he could bless his kids when he got home from our week long road trip. A little gift from Uncle Terry if you will.

We drove up to the hotel after our last service tired and weary of the snow packed road that we had traveled on all day long. We literally had to follow a snow plow to make it to our destination that night. As I opened the door of the van under the awning of the hotel, the sub zero wind hit me in the face and I remembered that I hadn't given him his gift. I reached in my pocket where I knew I had left it and it was nowhere to be found. I had just written it out a few minutes earlier, in that same seat, in that van. I couldn't find it anywhere! I was bamboozled and confused. One second it was there and the next it had simply vanished into thin air. Finally, frustrated and tired of looking for it, I simply wrote him out another gift.

I never did find that stinkin' check, but someone else did. I received a note, weeks later, from an assistant manager employed at the hotel. She had gone out one night for some reason and saw something laying in the snow, picked it up and saw that it was a signed check. She said in her note, "I thought you might want or need this." I've never forgotten that act of kindness.

I have made a commitment to be "that kind" of honest person who says, " just because I found it, that doesn't make it mine." I want to be a man of integrity.

I want to encourage you to be a person who returns the small things that are not yours. Don't indulge yourself on someone's loss. Pick up an envelope, write a note, and become the honest individual that God desires for you to be. Tired and road weary people will thank you!