Letter#5 to the Gkids: MY DEFINITION OF INTEGRITY

Mar 01

[These letters to my two oldest grandsons, 13 and 11, are not fictional. They read them, feeling special to be "blogged" about, and we will chat about them during my visits. Dad (Matt, co writer) will engage them in the meantime. This series is also for YOU (Old Folks). It's a reminder how essential INTEGRITY is to our lives. Thoughts I offer the boys can prod you into fresh thinking. A few moments of reading and a quick inventory just might refresh your soul, might adjust your behavior...today. ]

THE MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS REPRESENTED FREEDOM, ADVENTURE, COURAGE, RISK…BUT THEY ALWAYS HAD AN ANCHOR TO STEADY THEM ON THE SHORES OF THEIR GOAL

Taylor and Colton, I left you hanging. I was about to doze off when I was getting to my definition. That was partly a grandfather trick to get you to come up with your own, discuss it and then compare it to mine. Mine comes after a long life of sorting out the important things of life from the other stuff. Most of life is the “other stuff.”

INTEGRITY is the anchor (think of a storm and a rocky shore), the foundation (think of what holds the rest of the building and the life steady) of my character. It is who I REALLY AM when no one, not even Nani, is looking. It is also who I am to God because I know He is “looking,” and I care about that. It is what makes me content with myself even when I make mistakes and bad choices, because I know I will learn and move on. It is who I am to others because if I don’t have the character that comes out of INTEGRITY, I can not be to my fellow man (especially, friends, wife, children) what they need me to be.

So, trying keep this short, I’ll leave it there with, of course, a question we can take up at the Cowboy Cafe in six weeks: If INTEGRITY is a core value for your life, can you (and you, dear reader) give me examples of lives or verses in the Bible that make this point?

POPI

Lance
Mar 01, 2011 @ 21:47:39

Titus 2:7 and the Book of Job comes to mind…if there was only one character trait I could pass on to my children, Integrity would be it. Read the headlines: Enron, Tiger Woods, Sen. John Edwards all failed this test.

This is my quote: “Integrity is not what we do when everyone is watching, it’s what we do when no one is watching.”

Esse Quam Videri

Gary
Mar 02, 2011 @ 09:53:08

OH YEAH. I take “when no one is watching” up one notch…”when only I and God are watching….in the mirror. Thanks for the Titus verse.

For visiting friends, Titus 2:7 first in NIV then see how the Message expands.

7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness

But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.

Gary
Mar 02, 2011 @ 23:21:56

A Facebook frined, neighbor, really, just sent me this. I’ve had these hovering in the back of my mind. Integriy, in or out of the Church is when your yes is yes and your no is no…just as Jesus commanded.

Phyllis Mifflin ‎”Do not break your promise, but keep the promises you have made to the Lord.” Matthew 5:33. “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no,’ no; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37 That’s the best I could do this am Gar.

GENDADS