:: Integrity ::

Sometimes it's the little things in life that reassure me that there is still some good and generosity left in the world. At work I rarely see any of that. Especially when people yell at you for things that you have no control over ( I am a waitress at Steak 'N Shake ), leave without tipping and sometimes without even paying at all. Parents constantly leave their kids' messes spilt all over the table and complain when they order 5 cups of cheese sauce and they have to pay for them. Nothing ever seems good at my job, but on Friday night there was a guy that showed a little integrity and motivated me in my own life ( and I'm pretty sure he had no idea the impact he made ).

They were a young man & a woman. I'm pretty sure they weren't dating. How do I know this? Most couples request a booth and snuggle in next to each other or if they do sit across from each other they hold hands or make silly, lovey-dovey faces at each other . ♥ But no, they sat in the back corner at a table across from each other. I'm not sure if he was a pastor or not. He was young ( late 20s / early 30s ), but little snips of their conversation as I cleaned off the tables around them included statements about baptism, past sins as a child, the church, etc. gave clues that she was seeking his counsel. He ordered a salad and a drink while she just got a milkshake ( i'm pretty sure ), but when I came back to check on them I noticed his salad pushed aside, hardly touched. I asked him if there was something wrong with it, and he replied that it just didn't hit the spot. I offered him something else to replace it, and he ordered a cheeseburger and I told him I would bring it out shortly and take the salad off his ticket. He insisted that he would pay for it, and I walked away pretending like I would let him pay for it. Of course I wasn't going to make him pay for it. Our salads aren't that great to begin with so I'm pretty sure it wasn't that good and he was just being polite. I had my manager Jennifer take the salad off his ticket and brought out his cheeseburger and the new ticket. They sat there for a long time ( over an hour ) and I was getting ready to leave and was filling up salad dressings in the back near the door when he signaled my attention and he said this.

"I saw where you took that salad off my check. Are you going to get in trouble for that? I can pay for it."

"No sir. I talked to my manager, and she took care of it. Don't worry about it."

"Alright. Well I was just going to make sure. Thanks so much. Have a great night."

The fact that he went out of his way to come and find me ( it was a busy night! ) and offer to pay for the salad that he didn't even care for after I had already taken it off his ticket just hit me. He was truly an honest guy, and even though it was just a $6.00 little salad, he wanted to do the right thing. And that's how I want to be in my life. I want to have integrity in the little and the big things. So I just thought that I would share this little story with you in order to encourage YOU to have integrity no matter what circumstances you are in.

1 Timothy 1:5 "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

- b -