Proverbs 10:9: “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.”
This week, I decided to leave the M.A.T.C.H. training program, a pre-apprenticeship in manufacturing.
I completed 3 out of 5 weeks of the program. I became OSHA 10 certified and forklift certified. I passed all my modules, and I made a wooden amplifier using a bandsaw, crazy glue, and a drill press.
I decided to leave because of my integrity, and I didn’t feel competent enough to represent myself as ready for manufacturing work.
Last Thursday I had an interview with a local manufacturing company to help with their factory work.
I was given a tour of the factory, and the manager walked with me, reviewing my resume.
He liked what he saw, and he liked that I was willing to put in the work.
The only problem was I didn’t complete the program, and I felt uncomfortable measuring and doing math.
Proverbs 11:3: “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”
My integrity guides me, even though I may not have a Christian background anymore; that doesn’t mean the lessons of the Bible are disregarded.
I used AI for the modules to help study and pass the test.
Now, did I learn, for sure? If I was honest with myself about what I learned, it was too rushed for me to comprehend the material.
There was a lot of math involved, a lot of processes within the shop, and I rushed through so I could graduate on time.
AI is great, but if you don’t know what you’re talking about and use AI to take tests for you, you’ll eventually get caught with the gap in your knowledge.
Proverbs 20:7: “The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them.”
I want to live a blameless life; I want to be as congruent as possible, and I want to live with integrity.
I know if I had more time to learn the machines and understand the shop math, I could confidently share my manufacturing resume.
But it would have taken 3 days out of the week for the next two weeks to get in and learn all the hands-on skills that I put on my resume.
We take one day solely applying to jobs, so that cuts down the days I’d be getting hands-on work.
It’s not enough time to learn what I need to learn.
I decided to pursue marketing and sales again, focus on my writing skills, and build a bigger audience for my newsletter.
Proverbs 28:6: “Better the poor whose walk is blameless than one whose ways are perverse though rich.”
Integrity isn’t always doing the harder thing. Sometimes integrity is refusing to pretend you’re ready when you know you’re not.
I would rather be poor with my integrity than have my ways perverse though rich.