Integrity

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the book of Proverbs 20:7:

“The righteous man walks in his integrity;
His children are blessed after him.”

Integrity means honesty. I want to speak to you today about dads. It's not Father’s Day, but I just feel I need to share this with you. We really need to appreciate our dads. My dad was a blue collar worker. He was a trader, a blacksmith, but he was also a very honest man. My dad never owed anybody anything. We didn’t have a lot at home, but everything we had, we owned. 

I remember when my dad was just about to meet the Lord, we had him in a very special place. I used to visit him every single day at a home in Greytown where he had special care. Every time I went in to see him, every single day, he would always ask me one question, “Angus, is there enough money in my account.”  You see, I was looking after his finances in the last months of his life, and I always said, “Dad, there is plenty there.” He was an honest man. He was a man that I respected. He taught me a lot of things that I also try to pass on to my children and grandchildren, but I want to tell you something now, honesty is a great thing and I want to tell you something now, our children will be blessed by us if we set the standard. 

One day, my dad was getting ready to go to work and I was moaning and saying to mom, “Mom, I don’t have a watch to wear, I don’t have a wrist watch. All the other boys in my class have got watches. I don’t have one.” My old dad took the watch off his wrist (this makes me emotional) and he gave it to me. He said, “Son, take this one”, and he gave it to me and went to work without a watch. 

I remember very clearly, my foreman on the farm, Simeon Bhengu, telling me after my dad had gone to be with the Lord. He said, “Every time my dad left the farm to go up and spend some time with my brother in Johannesburg, he would call the induna in. Now, my dad was a pensioner, he wasn’t running the farm, he was staying on the farm, and he would say to Bhengu, ”Bhengu, Ngifuna ukunakekela umfana wami” (I want you to look after my boy). Now this boy was already forty years old and my dad was in his seventies. We thank God for dads. Today, tell your dad that you love him, that is all he wants to hear, nothing else.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.