Saturday, March 8, 2008

Integrity

Synonyms for Integrity: candor, forthrightness, goodness, honestness, honesty, incorruptibility, incorruption, principle, probity, purity, rectitude, righteousness, sincerity, straightforwardness, uprightness, virtue

I am a big advocate that if you say something, you better follow through with it. Actions always speak louder than words. I place a high value on this. I don't need you to tell me something if you don't really mean it, why would I want that? Why would anybody want that?

As a follower of Christ, I hold this standard even more so with my brothers and sisters in Christ. There is always room for grace in this, but I don't want you blowing smoke up my butt to make you feel better.

I hold this true for those that I am closest with. If they are told something by someone, and then the actions don't match up, it pisses me off a little bit. Ok, it pisses me off a lot.

What really makes me mad is when I am called on something (which I am ok with, it always sucks, but is good in the end), but when I call that person on the same thing (or in the same type of context), all of a sudden it is a different story. Since I care about this person, I don't want them to be hurt. There is somebody in this persons life (a third party) who has said one thing, and their actions are not matching up, and now I am pissed. I called out the actions of the third party, and excuses are made.

The third party, in my opinion, just lost a bunch of character points. I see a glimpse of the type of integrity they really have.

I know, totally vague.

Words come up empty so many times. If you don't really mean it, then don't say it. As it says in James 3:5 "the tongue is such a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts"