The Life of Integrity

My sister was a lot of things but one thing she was not was a push-over. She was what Jesus talked about as the house built on the rock, she knew her foundation was Christ and she lived her life feeling no intimidation in the face of many trials in her life. She was a lot like our Dad, living life full of zest and rooted in integrity.

Integrity is a word that seems to be obsolete now, or maybe society has just changed its definition. Which makes me question: can we change the definition of such a word when society decides it doesn't work for them anymore? Isn't that in itself an oxymoron?

There was a time when we would arrive at work and clock-in without thinking about cheating the company if we were a few minutes late. Now it seems that we can not only avoid clocking-in due to our late arrival, but also lie about it when the boss questions us about the time we arrived. One of my co-workers arrived one day an hour and half late, yet told our boss she was there on time, she "just forgot to clock-in". Everyone knew the truth but no one said anything thinking that the boss would at some point catch on and call her on it, it didn't happen. In fact she received a few promotions after that.

This is not the only example yet of how attitudes have changed. It was not so long ago that had a child misbehaved in school or within his community, punishment from the offended and the parent would follow. Now we see more parents standing up for the child’s misbehaviors naming various “syndromes” at fault instead of realizing they are not helping the child by allowing the misbehavior to continue.

Do we have such small faith in our children that we cannot allow discipline to occur? Or are we afraid to “train them up in the way they should go” for fear that they will be walking alone without even ourselves as their mentors? It seems that in the work places and schools of our world, integrity has taken a back seat–it may even be packed in the trunk so we won’t have to be reminded of where our moral compass should be.

Has society’s definition changed or have we just shoved integrity right out the door like an unwelcome guest who has stayed much too long? I think this attitude of tolerance for lack of this trait has itself become an unwelcome guest or even worse a nagging relative whom we cannot separate from. I think it is time to stand up for ourselves and our children, to say we need to bring integrity back. We need to say we are sometimes wrong, that our children can also be wrong and then make amends to do better even when the people watching don’t seem to care.
The week my sister passed on a number of well-known celebrities also passed. Their lives were not lived with much integrity if any from my observations. Yet the world honored their deaths with a great deal of fanfare and my sister's passing seemed very low key with almost no notice from the world. But I know without a doubt that my sister has a place of honor now. I see her sitting at Jesus' feet like Martha's sisterMary, totally absorbed and still in awe of His presence. She lived as Christ wanted her to live, she was not perfect but had integrity and lived her life for Him. I think Christ would be proud if we decided to live our lives with more integrity a model for everyone.