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Key Bible Verse: No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said (Psalm 89:34). Bonus Reading: Ecclesiastes 5:4-6

Soon after I agreed to go to Alabama on a scholarship, a Florida State representative phoned. "We know you told Alabama you'll go there," he said. "But it's not yet signing day, and we've recruited the best quarterback and the best wide receiver in the country. Like you, they'd verbally committed to attend different schools. Then both came to visit Florida State. Once here, they realized we're the school for them."

The quarterback, I learned, planned to go to Penn State before changing his mind, and the receiver originally planned to enroll at Notre Dame. "We want you, Shaun," the man pleaded. "With you as the top running back, we'll have an unbeatable combination."

The lessons I'd received as a kid at home and in church were so strong, I didn't even feel tempted. "I appreciate the offer," I told him, "but I've given Alabama my word."

"You didn't write anything down," he countered.

"I didn't have to," I replied, "to know what I said."

To talk me out of my decision, he made a lot of promises about what Florida State would do for me.

"I said I'd go to Alabama," I told him. "That's what I meant; that's what I'll do."

—Shaun Alexander in Touchdown Alexander

My Response: How has internalizing God's Word reinforced my ability to resist temptation?

Thought to Apply: Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another. —Charles Colton (author)

Adapted from Touchdown Alexander (Harvest, 2006) by permission.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Please give me the boldness, Lord, to demonstrate Your righteousness where You've placed me.

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