Walking With Integrity
Today we are going to talk about what it means to walk with integrity. To do
that, we are first going to define what it means, we are going to discuss why
our Father demands that we walk in integrity and we are going to discuss some
examples of how we can see if we do walk in integrity. For starters, we have to
understand that walking in integrity is not always connected to what you know or
how much knowledge you may have. Nor is it connected to how much money you have
or how you look. One can have a lot of knowledge, have a whole lot of money and
be beautiful and yet have no integrity. When
you think about Integrity how do you see it?
Ex 28:30 30 And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim
and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in
before Yahweh: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon
his heart before Yahweh continually.
Dictionary definition:
noun
Moral
or ethical strength: character,
fiber,
honesty,
principle.
See strong
The quality of being
honest: honesty,
honor,
honorableness,
incorruptibility,
upstandingness.
See honest
The condition of being free
from defects or flaws: durability,
firmness,
solidity,
soundness,
stability,
strength,
wholeness.
See better
The state of being entirely
whole: completeness,
entirety,
oneness,
totality,
wholeness.
See part
To develop Integrity one first has to desire it and
then he or she must practice it. Think about it, if you who have never run a 5k
run and then all of a sudden you decide that you will get up and try to run it.
You can bet that your body will let you know that the idea is crazy. Integrity
is a value that develops from the daily practice of doing the right things over
and over again; until such a point that it becomes common nature. In fact you
wan to get to the point where you will not be at rest if you do not do what is
right.
As parents, we must understand that teaching this
to our children takes time and it will not be done overnight. The scriptures
contain within the writings many examples of people that we can copy that walked
with integrity. As we review the following examples remember that integrity is
not a stand alone value or skill, rather it is a summation of many good and
moral character values.
Yahweh recognized that Abraham was a man of
integrity:
Gen 18:17-19 17 Then Yahweh said, "Shall I
hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great
and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19
For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household
after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing what is right and just, so that
Yahweh will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
Yahweh
demands that the leaders are to be man of integrity:
Deut 16:18-20 18 Appoint judges and officials for
each of your tribes in every town Yahweh your Elohim is giving you, and they
shall judge the people fairly. 19 Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do
not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words
of the righteous. 20 Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and
possess the land Yahweh your Elohim is giving you.
Our Heavenly Father weighs the integrity of a man
as he examines and judges us:
Ps 7:8 let Yahweh judge the peoples. Judge me, O
YHWH, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High.
Yowceph (Joseph) is a great demonstrator of
integrity:
Gen 39:1-12 39:1 Now Joseph had been taken down to
Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of
the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. 2 Yahweh was
with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
3 When his master saw that Yahweh was with him and that Yahweh gave him success
in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.
Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care
everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and
of all that he owned, Yahweh blessed the household of the Egyptian because of
Joseph. The blessing of Yahweh was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house
and in the field. 6 So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph
in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now
Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife took
notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!" 8 But he refused.
"With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern
himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my
care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld
nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a
wicked thing and sin against Elohim?" 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day
after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. 11 One day he
went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants
was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with
me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
Teaching Integrity to our children:
Before we can teach our
children integrity we ourselves should be walking in it. It is hard to teach
something that you know nothing about. That is why we must do all that we can to
examine our selves our lives and to
ensure that we are walking in integrity.
The second thing that we
must do is that we must teach our children about choices and their consequences.
Some of the excuses that people use when it come to making a righteous choice
over a bad or negative choice is by justifying the action. It's okay as long as you don't get caught," or
"It's not that bad, every one's doing it." or “This doesn’t hurt
anyone!”
As parents, we need to teach our children to stop
asking what's wrong with certain a choice. Instead, we need to teach them to ask
what's right with it. We need to help our children ask the questions about
whether their choices or actions are moving them further away from integrity and
most importantly our Heavenly Father. If we are able to help them recognize that
a specific choice and or decisions is not in their best interest and they do the
right thing, then they are victorious. They have won the battle.
Here is a small poem that exemplifies the meaning
of walking in integrity:
-The
choices we make every day, Dictate the life we lead. To yourself be true!
We are told in Luke 16:10 that "Whoever can be
trusted with very little can also be trusted with much" The more
responsibility that we have the greater the accountability that we will have.
How we handle the small the things is an indicator
of how we will be handling the bigger issues. We need to talk to our children
about how our actions in small things will affect the character of our lives.
When you say little lies, we will definitely think that it is ok to say the big
ones.
A key to maintaining integrity is for us to have
some sort of accountability. Accountability is simply being responsible to
another person or persons for the commitments that we have made. Now sometimes
that we make commitments that we are not able to make and it is nobody’s
fault; an example of that is if I made a commitment to take the kid’s to the
store to buy something but before I could take them I became sick or lost my
job. Those kinds of things are understandable, but when we make commitments on a
regular basis and we don’t come through with them then we are effectively
lacking in integrity. When you are able to talk to somebody and make yourself
transparent and say listen I am going to do this and if I don’t will you
please hold me accountable, although that is hard to do, if we are sincere about
building integrity then this will help us become better people.
Sometimes we make commitments and we don’t
recognize the hardships that we place people under when we don’t come through.
I can remember when I had a friend that had told me that he wanted to come over
so that we could discuss a business venture. My wife had a made a wonderful
dinner that she has worked very hard on. In fact she jokingly said that he had
better show up because she had worked so hard to make this dinner. Well he
didn’t show up and he didn’t call telling me that he was not going to show
up. Now would you be willing to go into a business venture with a person like
this?
Integrity is developed by keeping all of our
promises including the little insignificant ones. Those that keep their word are
known for having integrity; those that don’t are generally not trusted. So
having someone that you can account to is an important thing in assisting you to
develop integrity!
When it comes to our children we want to make sure that we help them develop integrity so they can withstand peer pressure. Peer pressure is one of the biggest sins or things that many of our children will have to deal with. Today, teenagers are involved in sexual promiscuity, something they call sexting and many other sinful and negative behaviors. We must take the reigns and make sure that our children understand that those behaviors are not conducive to having a great relationship with our Heavenly Father. As parents we need to nurture our children so that they grow up to be happy and healthy adults, and along the way we want to develop a character of integrity.
As faithful believers we have a responsibility to
be Qodesh or distinct, different, peculiar, special and definitely clean and
undefiled. Our father commands us to be Set-apart as he is set apart.
Be blameless:
2 Sam 22:21-31 21 "Yahweh has dealt with me
according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has
rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh; I have not done evil by
turning from my Elohim. 23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away
from his decrees. 24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from
sin. 25 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my
cleanness in his sight. 26 "To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to
the blameless you show yourself blameless, 27 to the pure you show yourself
pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. 28 You save the humble, but
your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. 29 You are my lamp, O YHWH;
Yahweh turns my darkness into light. 30 With your help I can advance against a
troop; with my Elohim I can scale a wall. 31 "As for Elohim, his way is
perfect; the word of Yahweh is flawless. He is a shield
Be steadfast:
Ps 112:4-9 4 Even in darkness light dawns for the
upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
5 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts
his affairs with justice. 6 Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will
be remembered forever. 7 He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is
steadfast, trusting in Yahweh. 8 His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in
the end he will look in triumph on his foes. 9 He has scattered abroad his gifts
to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in
honor.