So, recently I have been thinking a lot about integrity. Weird way to start a blog post, maybe. But I've been thinking about it for several reasons. One reason being, this summer I feel like this generation is really missing the boat on integrity. I feel like our staff has struggled with the simplest of standards and I immediately attribute it to a lack of integrity. Also, in my Leadership classes, I have been writing and writing and writing that a leader must be a man or a woman of integrity. I value my own integrity and I believed that "as you think in your heart, so you are". . . just have integrity for crying out loud is kind of my theory.
I'm reading a book by M.J.C. and I just read this paragraph that I think changes everything I feel about integrity:
. . . we think of integrity as exhibiting good morals, having strong character, and diligently obeying God's commands. Actually, these are all consequences of integrity. Integrity itself--taken from teh Latin word integer--means to be whole. Just as a whole number is known as an integer, a whole man is known as a man of integrity. A man who is whole is a moral man and an obediant man. Each of these flows from integrity.
I don't really know why that part stuck out to me so much. Maybe because I realized that they (or I heaven-forbid) can't have integrity unless they are whole. One cannot have integrity if he or she is broken and we are all so broken that maybe we need to focus more on healing so that integrity can come naturally. That almost pains me to write because I am so black and white and I just think: have integrity. You're broken? Well me to and I'm doing it right. . . . Maybe I'm doing the rules at camp right, but I'm doing other things not very well, like harboring hurt and bitterness and whatever else. I don't know.
I may be rambling, but for some reason this was helpful for me to see that integrity is just the result of us being whole. We cannot demonstrate integrity if we are not whole, so I need to be intentional about ministering to the brokenness of my staff (or myself or my family or whomever) so that they can then exhibit integrity.
There is my ramblings for the day.
I'm reading a book by M.J.C. and I just read this paragraph that I think changes everything I feel about integrity:
. . . we think of integrity as exhibiting good morals, having strong character, and diligently obeying God's commands. Actually, these are all consequences of integrity. Integrity itself--taken from teh Latin word integer--means to be whole. Just as a whole number is known as an integer, a whole man is known as a man of integrity. A man who is whole is a moral man and an obediant man. Each of these flows from integrity.
I don't really know why that part stuck out to me so much. Maybe because I realized that they (or I heaven-forbid) can't have integrity unless they are whole. One cannot have integrity if he or she is broken and we are all so broken that maybe we need to focus more on healing so that integrity can come naturally. That almost pains me to write because I am so black and white and I just think: have integrity. You're broken? Well me to and I'm doing it right. . . . Maybe I'm doing the rules at camp right, but I'm doing other things not very well, like harboring hurt and bitterness and whatever else. I don't know.
I may be rambling, but for some reason this was helpful for me to see that integrity is just the result of us being whole. We cannot demonstrate integrity if we are not whole, so I need to be intentional about ministering to the brokenness of my staff (or myself or my family or whomever) so that they can then exhibit integrity.
There is my ramblings for the day.
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