Thursday, February 24, 2011

Integrity

     Having four children of my own, and trying to teach them right from wrong, I've rediscovered a word that I may have never fully understood before. The word in integrity. The lyrics to a church song always come to mind when I hear it: A word so seldom understood.
     To me integrity is defined by how you act when you think no one is watching.
     I say think, because someone is always watching and unfortunately they sometimes have a camera handy.
     I'll be honest here, my first reaction is usually anger (a family trait, I suppose). I'm mentally confrontational (which means in my head I'm yelling, ranting, raving and not acting maturely). While physically I'm probably just crying (another family trait...). And occasionally I get those reactions mixed up.  When I've had time to process information I can usually go back and adjust my thoughts and actions accordingly, but is that integrity?
     I know I'm not the only one to overreact. I've seen YouTube. And reality shows. And my living room.
     So what is integrity to you?

1 comment:

  1. Funny you should post this. Last night was my girls New begginnings, where they welcome the soon to be 12 year olds. The young women who have already earned their medalon were to each speak on one of the values. Katelyn was suppose to speak on integrety. Both my girls are really sick and didn't get to go last night. I went cause I wanted them to be represented. I didn't know at the time that she was to speak, till I saw the program. I was reminded of a story that happened, many years ago and decided to share it last night.
    One of my faithful clients, when I worked at a barbershop, asked that I give his wife "the treatment". He paid for everything in advance, even the tip. When his wife came I cut, permed and styled her hair. When she was leaving she handed me a tip. I said that her husband had already paid the tip.
    A few days later I got a phone call from this guy. He was impressed that I showed INTEGRETY and didn't take the tip from his wife. Until that moment I really didn't understand what it really meant.
    So Julie's definition is: Purposely doing what's right.

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