![]() ![]() ![]() We can tell a child “I love you” repeatedly, but for them love is often spelled “time.” If they don’t feel worthy of our time and attention, they might be right to question the depth of our love for them. As Rush implied, if our actions don’t match our thoughts and words, what we say doesn’t mean much. We might admonish our children, “Do as I say, not as I do,” but kids can see through that. Integrity is equally vital for effective parenting. Maybe that’s one reason those time-honored words are left out of many wedding ceremonies today. For instance, when a couple says, “I do,” after agreeing that their union is “for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live,” it’s as much about integrity as it is about love. However, integrity applies to every area of life, to every segment of society. Sometimes the lapse of time isn’t nearly that long it might be just days or even hours, depending on the audience they’re addressing. We could cite many instances of men and women who have said one thing and then years later made an entirely different assertion or promise. ![]() Whenever the subject of integrity comes to mind, one of the first groups many of us think of is politicians. But if you make a vow or promise, fulfill it, even if circumstances in which you made that commitment have changed.” Exhorting His hearers – and each of us 2,000 years later – to place a high premium on being truthful and fulfilling commitments wholeheartedly, He put it in uncomplicated terms: “But let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37).Īs I understand it, Jesus was basically saying, “If you’re not willing to keep a commitment, don’t make it in the first place. In His Sermon on the Mount, one of the many things Jesus Christ talked about was integrity. With a remarkable economy of words, Rush captured what integrity is – devotion to the truth, regardless of the cost being faithful to keep promises made and aligning what we think and say with what we do. “By integrity I mean…veracity, fidelity to promises, and a strict coincidence between thoughts, words and actions.” Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a leader of the first Sunday school movement in America and our nation’s first Bible society. But what is integrity, anyway? We could Google the word or consult a dictionary, but I came across a definition that’s spot-on. ![]()
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