A good way to define integrity is to examine one’s public versus his/her private personality. In other words, are one the same person in the light as well as in the dark?
Consistency and inconsistency are therefore the key factors that determine integrity.
"In the Greek original of the New Testament the word used means `judged in the sunlight’; and the English word is derived from the Latin--- `sine cera’, which means `without wax’. In the days when art flourished in ancient Greece, it was the common practice to repair with `invisible’ wax any vase or statue that had, as a result of carelessness or misadventure, been damaged.
A rich man or a person of high rank might employ a sculptor to chisel his bust
in marble. Sometimes, if the chisel slipped, the end of the nose would be
chipped off. Rather than go to the trouble of making a new bust, the sculptor
would so mend the features with wax that the flaws could not be detected unless
by very close scrutiny, and palm off on the customer his defective workmanship.
If the client happened to be a knowing person, he would carry the finished
statuette out of the studio into the open before paying for it, and examine it
carefully in the sunlight: otherwise in the course of time, he would have the
chagrin of seeing the nose drop off his statuette in the heated room of his
house. The statue was not `sincere’, not `without wax’, and could not bear
careful scrutiny in the sunlight" (A. Naismith. 1200 Notes, Quotes And
Anecdotes. Great Britain: Pickering Paperbacks, 1988, p. 185).
Job 1:6-8; 2:2-3
After having lost his livestock, his children and even his health, Job still clung to his faith in God. In Job 2:9, Job’s wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die"
If you are confident in someone, then you can have assurance about his/her performance with whatever is at hand.
If you are confident of someone’s behavior, then you are trusting of them.
You therefore know that you can rely on him or her to do what is right even when you are not there.
John Wesley was one day walking along the road with a friend who,
sore vexed and troubled, expressed his doubts of God’s goodness. `I don’t know
what I shall do with all my worries and troubles," said he. Wesley noticed a cow
looking over a stone wall, and put the question, "Why does a cow look over the
wall?"
"Because it can’t see through it I suppose," replied his friend. "Precisely!"
said Wesley. "So if you can’t see through your troubles, try looking over them:
and look up to God."
“A righteous man who walks in his integrity - How blessed are his sons after him” (Prov 20:7).
That tells me this: integrity can be modeled and transmitted.
Jerry Steen tells of an experience he had at the first church he ministered at. He had a job of mixing feed to supplement his income. He says this: “For a period of about two weeks, each day that I came home from work, my two boys, ages 2 and 3 would look at me, smile, and would say, ‘Boy, dad, you sure are dusty!’ I would reply, ‘Yes, I sure am dusty.’ Then I would get cleaned up. I didn’t think too much of this until I was washing my car and saw my oldest son doing something very strange. He was picking up the gravel and stones that were in our drive and rubbing them into his pants. I asked him, ‘Want are you doing?’ He replied, ‘I want to be dusty like you dad!’
It was then that I realized that if a child would look up to his father for being dusty and want to copy his father, a child could look up to his father and follow him for anything.”
What are you passing on to your children?
In his book, “Living Above the Level of Mediocrity,” Chuck Swindoll says this:
THE WORLD NEEDS MEN...
who cannot be bought;
whose word is their bond;
who put character above wealth;
who possess opinions and a will;
who are larger than their vocations;
who do not hesitate to take chances;
who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
who will make no compromise with wrong;
whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
who will not say they do it because everybody else does it;
who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity
as well as in prosperity;
who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hardheadedness are the best
qualities for winning success;
who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
who can say “no” with emphasis, although all the rest of the world says “yes.”
