“A GOOD name is better than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.”
With the difference between right and wrong becoming more and more blurry to this generation, it’s quite easy to see that good character is hard to find. If we were to take a poll and see how many people lie on a daily basis, and how many think it’s wrong…I’m sure the results would be shocking. I recently heard the question asked, “How is you character development going?” And what a deep question that was. As the body of Christ we should be developing our character daily. To what caliber do we hold ourselves with our honesty, integrity, loyalty, promptness, kindness, temper, tone. What reputation follows each of us? And is something we can be proud of? Let’s define character:
1char·ac·ter
a : one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual
b : moral or ethical quality:
I recently read of an incident reputed to have taken place in the late 19th Century that underscores the vital importance of both honesty and consistency as essential to our understanding of integrity. Down in the farmlands of Missouri there was a minister and his two sons who had quickly become attached to a stray dog that wandered onto their property. Later they saw an advertisement in the local paper about a lost dog that fit the description precisely. The dog was black as coal all over, except for a three white hairs at the end of his tail. Not wanting to disappoint his boys, the minister carefully separated the white hairs on its tail and pulled them out, explaining that the dog could now be theirs. When the rightful owner heard about the dog, he went to the farm and knocked on the ministers door. As the dog ran to see who was there, it was obvious that the dog recognized the man as its master. But when the man wanted to leave with the dog, the preacher questioned, “Didn’t your ad say that your dog had white hairs on his tail?” Finding none, the man was forced to leave without his dog. Years later, the minister reflected back on this event in his memoirs and so heavily stated, “I kept the dog….but lost my boys.” Those boys went on to become the notorious outlaws – Frank and Jesse James. Spending the greater part of their lives robbing trains, murdering the innocent and wasting the life they had been given.
Their father, Robert S. James, went on to say that after that event he lost the boys respect. And no matter how good his sermons were on Sunday, it made no difference because his sons had seen who he really was when no one else was watching. Even the smallest of situations demand intergrity. Every moment of our life deserves our honesty. How you treat the small things will be how you treat the big things. I pray that each of us would be the sister that can be respected. Be mom that can be trusted. Be the father that can be counted on. Be the friend that can be confided in. And most of all take up our poistion as the sons or daughter of Christ and live our life with excellence and intergity. That though we make mistakes, we would be wise to learn from them. And not take the simple, small, and easily hidden sins lightly. But that we would expose these hidden cavities in our lives to God, and walk in the freedom He has paid the ultimate price for.
Lapses in integrity are costly. Someone once said, “sin will take you further than you want to go. It will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay.” The same can be said of the loss of integrity.
“God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.”
Share this and pass on the awesomeness:
Like this:
3 bloggers like this post.
