A few years back, Sports Illustrated magazine reported on a T-ball game in Wellington, Florida, where a seven-year-old first baseman, Tanner Munsey, fielded a ground ball and tried to tag a runner going from first to second. The umpire, Laura Benson, called the runner out. But young Tanner immediately went to the umpire and said, "Ma'am, I didn't touch him." The umpire reversed her decision and sent the runner back to second base. Tanner's coach awarded him the game ball for his honesty.
Two weeks later, Laura Benson was again the umpire, and Tanner Munsey was playing shortstop when a similar play occurred. This time, Benson ruled that Tanner had missed the tag on the runner going to third base, and she called the runner safe. Tanner, with a strange expression, but without saying a word, tossed the ball to the pitcher and returned to his position. Benson, sensing that Tanner was troubled, asked Tanner, "Did you tag the runner?" He said, "Yes." Benson called the runner out!
The opposing coach came roaring onto the field in protest, but Laura Benson explained to him what had happened two weeks earlier.
"If a kid is that honest," she said, "I have to give it to him. This game is supposed to be for kids".
If you had been that coach, would you have given Tanner Munsey the game ball? If you had been the opposing coach, would you have remembered that the game is for kids? If you had been the umpire, would you have encouraged that kind of integrity?
God calls us as Christians to be genuine people, living lives which are honest, upright, and truthful. The way we live and the decisions we make influence others, therefore our priorities must be focused on God. Let's live genuine Christian lives, void of superficiality and doubt.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11-14 -- NIV)
