A Glimpse into My Personal Character

Twice in the past two weeks I have had the chance to lie in order to benefit myself.  In both cases I chose not to.  The first instance involved the mileage I had to report to work in order to get reimbursed for driving to Phoenix for a symposium.  Because I stayed in Phoenix for the weekend, my total mileage traveled was a lot higher than what the actual mileage from door to door should have been.  I could have kept it that way and got more money, but it didn't feel right.  That little voice in my head was saying to be truthful.  So I calculated the truthful mileage and submitted that.

And then today, State Farm finally called me in regards to the claim I filed about my water line.  They asked me what happened and I told them exactly what happened.  There was a rock in the ground that was rubbing on the pipe and eventually caused a leak.  The claims adjuster asked how the rock got there, which I thought was odd.  How do rocks get anywhere?  It was just there.  She asked if it anything sudden caused the leak or if any damage to the house was caused.  I could have lied here and said yes knowing that it would help my chances of the claim getting approved.  But once again, the voice in my head said be truthful, so I did.  As much as I would love to get the money back to pay for the repairs, I didn't want to get it by lying.  And, alas, my claim was rejected.

I'm sure some of you are thinking, it's no big deal to tell a lie every now and then.  That's how the world works, after all.  And, maybe you're right.  I can't sit here and tell you that I've never lied.  But there are times when I feel like my lies would go against my character, and that's where I take pause.  These were two instances of that.  I felt like I would be cheating other people by lying and I just couldn't do that.  How can I expect other people to be truthful with me and not cheat me out of something if I don't expect the same of myself?  The answer is, I can't.  I may die broke and alone, but at least I will like myself.  It's important to me to have good character, whether anybody else knows it or not.  Although, I hope people think I do.  Anyway, I decided to share this just to give you all a little glimpse into what makes me tick.  Perhaps, I'll make this a series of posts.