Hi, I’m Deanna Simeone, Director of Human Resources.
The first of our core values here at SCC is Integrity with Transparency. It reads like this:
“Integrity with Transparency – We value and recognize the transforming power of God’s word in our lives as we pursue wholeness in our character. We will not be bought or sold, because we are sold out for Christ.”
Integrity is the quality of having strong ethical or moral principles and following them at all times, no matter who's watching.
Integrity is the quality of having strong ethical or moral principles and following them at all times, no matter who's watching.
People of integrity:
- Value other people’s time.
- They give credit where it is due.
- They are authentic.
- They are always honest.
- They never take advantage of others.
- They do not argue over disagreements.
When you tell someone that you are a Seventh-day Adventist, what is their reaction? Do they say, “Oh yeah, you don’t drink or smoke, right?” Or do you hear this one, “You’re a vegetarian.” Or perhaps you get this reaction, “You go to church on Saturday, don’t you?”
When you tell someone that you are a Seventh-day Adventist, what is their reaction?
My daughter told a friend at collage once she was a Seventh-day Adventist and she said, “No, but you’re so nice.” The response from one of her professors was, “Be careful, those people can be very legalistic.”
One Sabbath morning, a gentleman saw her dressed nicely and commented, you must be either Jewish or Seventh-day Adventist, my guess is Jewish. She said, actually, I’m a Seventh-day Adventist. He looked at her and in a serious voice said, “Don’t let them steal your joy.”
Have you ever heard someone say, “Seventh-day Adventist? Oh yes, those Adventist are people of integrity. I know they will always be fair and honest.”
Are we known as people of integrity? Or is what people know about us is that we don’t drink or smoke, or dance? Do people know they can trust us to always be respectful of their time, to be authentic, to be honest, to never take advantage? Can they count on us to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, even if no one else is watching?
One day, my daughter was at the local CVS pharmacy picking up a few items. She gave the cashier the money to pay for her purchases. She was supposed to get $4.50 in change. Instead, the cashier gave her $45.00. Amanda looked at the money and then looked at the cashier. “You want to try that again,” she said. He looked at the money in her hands and then at the cash register. He grunted, “ugh,” took back the $45.00 and handed her the correct change of $4.50, without another word. Amanda took the money and headed for the door thinking, “He could have at least said, ‘Thank you.’ Oh well,” she thought.
But as she neared the exit, she heard the customer who had been standing behind her point out to the cashier, in rather colorful language, that she had just saved his job and the least he could have done was to say, “Thank you.”
She smiled and walked on out to the parking lot. As she neared her car, a woman with a small child in tow approached her and said, “I just want to thank you, you just taught my son an important lesson in honesty.”
She did the right thing and gave back the money that didn’t belong to her because it was the right thing to do.
Amanda did the right thing and gave back the money that didn’t belong to her because it was the right thing to do. Not because someone would say “thank you” or “you taught my son an important lesson.” She did the right thing because, as someone who loves Jesus, she always tries to do the right thing.
My favorite quote from the writer Ellen G. White is found in the book of Education on page 57. She writes, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”
It is my prayer that as Seventh-day Adventist Christians we will be men and women of integrity, men and women who will not be bought or sold because we are sold out for Christ.
