Integrity

I am still amazed at how my word/quote/verse a day works.  I have all of these random quotes/words/verses written out and put in three separate containers.  It is amazing to me how random drawing them, they still go so well together.  I love it! 


INTEGRITY

from dictionary.com

in·teg·ri·ty

[in-teg-ri-tee] Show IPA

noun

1.

adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

2.

the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.

3.

a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.

 

 

So basically integrity means sticking to what you think is right.  I like the last definition...unimpaired or perfect condition.   Sometimes I think that integrity is very much based on your idea of culture and moral principles.  What one culture deems as integrity...well  I just don't know that another culture would think that thing was so important, or so perfect.  I think a lot about how different my perspective is about other countries and cultures than it was when I ventured overseas 10 years ago.  Not only am I different as a person, but I am different as an American.  A few years ago it really annoyed me that people could just walk around like America was the best in the world.  Like we had all the answers, and we were the perfect example of what having integrity was.  It doesn't bother me anymore because I realize that it is not necessarily because people are stupid, it is just because they have been brought up to believe that.   The same way that people in other countries have been brought up to treat women like something that is only useful for breeding.  Or the same way that people have been brought up to lie, cheat, and steal to get their way.  America isn't perfect, and I am not claiming that I think people should continue to think it is, but I just think that we have to understand where people are coming from.  Even in my own country sometimes I have to stop and tell myself that not everyone has seen what I have seen.  This in no way makes me perfect and I still have my own prejudices...but I hope that it helps me have a little more integrity than I would have had if I had just stayed and lived a normal life in Missouri for the past 10 years.  I am thankful for my integrity, and it was started long before I went overseas.  I saw my parents, my aunts/uncles, and cousins.  They helped to form the integrity that I hold.  I am truly thankful to know right from wrong.  I am thankful that I understand the world not only from an American viewpoint, but from something a little broader too.  

 

 

 

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."  -Thomas Jefferson

 

It's true....we all know it is.  There are people that just don't have the desire to work.  Maybe it is not that they are lazy.  Maybe it is just that they are used to being handed things.  Does our society make it easy for people to just sit around and wait for handouts?  Do they feel entitled?  I can't imagine not working.  I don't think there has been a time when I have not worked, except a couple of summers when I actually got paid through the summer for teaching.  I am not sure how to stop this problem of people who don't really need handouts getting them, but I do know that it is a problem.  Meanwhile I worked my butt off to get a Master's degree and I will be paying it off for the next 5 years at least, only to have to pinch pennies in the meantime.  But I am working that's for sure.  

 

 

 

2 Timothy 1:7

 

 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 

 

Power...I often time wonder what sort of power I have as a Christian, because I do not feel very powerful most of the time.  In fact I feel the opposite.  I feel powerless.  Powerless because right now I feel like my life continues to be in this place where I have no idea what I am doing.  Maybe that is just me being me...but maybe I am missing where the power is?