Integrity: Where Your Word Is Your Bond Series

• Sometimes in their desire to serve and be of assistance a man or woman of integrity may take on more than they can handle and tasks they had committed themselves to doing just cannot get done. People of integrity don’t just walk away. They humbly acknowledge their lack of judgment and immediately try to renegotiate the contract or find a faithful substitute who will work with them and for whom they accept responsibility till the job is done. They remember that the buck stops with them.

6. So let’s each just do a little integrity check here for a moment.

• How’s our integrity with God? Are we keeping the vows and commitments we have made to Him? When we chose to call Him Lord and Master, we decided that He would be the owner of our life, our time, our resources and all that we have. How are we doing on that commitment? What portion of His resources are we spending on those things that will advance and expand His Kingdom and what on ourselves? Are we constantly seeking to bring our lives into alignment with God’s agenda or are we too busy promoting our own?

• How’s our integrity with the church? When we joined we vowed to participate by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. How are we doing in those departments? How is your prayer life? How much time of each day is spent in heart-to-heart conversation with God about the things that are on His agenda? How often do you lift up your brothers and sisters in prayer? How regularly do you show up and actively participate in the worship life of the church? Just when it is convenient or doesn’t clash with other priorities? How are we doing in terms of offering and using the gifts and talents God has given us in His service? When we joined the church, we accepted the fact that we became a member of a body, not a member of a religious club. Members of a club can frequently do their own thing, attend when they want to as long as they pay their dues. Members of a body are integrally joined to and responsible for and dependent on one another. Which members in this body are you dependent on and who are you responsible for?

• How’s our integrity towards the one we vowed “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part”? How are we doing in communicating our love and commitment in word and action in such a way that our beloved feels honored, cherished, and precious?

• How’s our integrity toward our families – our children and our grandchildren? When we presented them for baptism we vowed that we would “nurture them in Christ’s holy church and by our teaching and example guide them to accept God’s grace for themselves and to profess their faith openly and lead a Christian life”. We committed ourselves to do “all in our power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love”. When last did you talk with your children or grandchildren about Christ and encourage them to draw closer to Him?