"I will not remove mine integrity from me."

“...til I die I will not remove mine integrity from me” (Job 27:5).

One of the books of scripture we're studying in my Old Testament class for our group meeting later this morning is Job.  Every week everyone in our group has a specific responsibility: someone is the leader/facilitator of the meeting, someone else takes notes and then submits a report of our meeting, someone else looks for additional information in church magazines on lds.org, someone else looks up other scriptures that go along with what we're talking about, and someone else - me this week - gets to share a personal experience/insight that goes along with what we're discussing during our meeting.

I was really excited when I found out we were studying Job and that I'd get to be the the experience/insight sharer this week (the "official" title is "validation participant"), because I had a life-changing experience a few years ago with this scripture from Job that's written at the top of this post. 

I had just been called to teach early morning seminary but had not yet been released from serving in Young Womens. We had a stake (a stake is made up of several congregations) training meeting one night a few days after this new, and totally overwhelming call had been extended to me. “Totally overwhelmed” would be a bit of an understatement as to how I was feeling. Our Stake Young Womens' President spoke to us that night, not about Personal Progress, or planning Activities With a Purpose, or some of the other usual topics. She spoke to us about how we, as leaders, can strengthen ourselves to be better examples to the Young Women we’d been called to serve. 

She wore a sign like this around her neck (but hers was larger):

She talked about Job and listed all the things he experienced and quoted the above scripture from Job 27. Then she said, “How many times do I remove my integrity (and she took offer her sign) to watch a certain TV show?” Then she put her sign back on. Then she said, “How often do I remove my integrity (she took the sign off again) so I can gossip about someone?” And she went on and listed several other examples, taking her sign off and putting it back on as she went along. 

This sister is one that everyone admires; she is just an awesome lady. So to have her teach this concept in this way really affected me because I feel like she’s many levels above where I was/am currently. At the end of her talk she gave each one of us a smaller sign and I went right home and put it on my bulletin board where I could see it often. 

Her message really hit me like a bunch of bricks, as I knew with my new calling that I’d have to work even harder to always have the Spirit with me as I taught these youth every single morning. I’ve always been really careful about the TV shows I watch and the movies I go to, but I was even more careful after this experience with the choices in all areas of my life. 

After all, Job refused to “remove” his integrity for anything that wasn’t in line with the gospel.

And I wanted – and still want - to do the same.