INTEGRITY!

What is INTEGRITY?

My family and I have been discussing what exactly integrity is for the past couple of weeks. Then as the icing on the cake, at our church meetings yesterday this was the topic….. hmmmm – that made me stop and question. Do you think lack of integrity is a problem these days in every society? I suppose to really understand what the problem (if there is a problem) one should know and understand the definition of integrity. Here you go – Integrity~ (1) adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. (2) the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.  (3) a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition.

One of the great examples from a speaker yesterday went something like this. You know with this bad economy many businesses didn’t give out Christmas bonuses this past year. A worker at one business made a comment that his family always goes to Disneyland every year and hadn’t missed a year. But with no bonus – that wasn’t going to happen this year. The next day he was thrilled and mentioned, that they would still go to California this year – his brothers family lived there and had season passes to Sea World that they were going to borrow (because the passes just have names and not photos). He said that he was going to tell his family to pretend they were the name on the pass. My question is – how do we expect our children to have integrity if they see us justifying not using integrity – when it is convenient for us?

Another point to ponder is the way we behave and how we treat others – perhaps you wrong someone, perhaps they wrong you – whether it is a lie or something else. What if you or that person moves to another area and you think you will never see them again. Why would you care that you were dishonest or unkind. This world is so small – the chance of you running into someone from your past is very real. How would you feel?

As we listen to stories in the media, watch the television programs we watch on a regular basis or go to a movie. Take a moment to evaluate the integrity of the over-all show and characters. I will start asking myself if that is something that will strengthen my integrity or will it weaken it….

Have a great week!