Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
My team leader challenged me to daily state an attribute I liked about myself. While doing this I noted being a person of integrity. I value being a person of my word and doing what I say I will do when I say I will do it. Growing up my parents taught me how important keeping commitments to others is and that your word was as good as a contract in a lot of cases. One even learned not to trust people who couldn’t keep their word. Therefore a strong emphasis on integrity was established.
However, listing this attribute also made me think of all the times I haven’t upheld integrity in my life. Upon reflection, I noticed a trend…Most of the times I have let integrity fall to the wayside, it’s been towards myself. I have put others and their needs above my own so many times to find my self promises lying broken in the wake. Why is it so easy to say I’ll set my alarm an hour early in the morning in order to do xyz and then when morning comes with alarm blaring what do I do but hit snooze and ignore the promise I made to myself to get up early? This seems like such a small thing but small things eventually add up and snowball into larger things. I find it much easier to keep promises to others. Should I not care about the promises I make to myself?
I’m starting to think transformation happens when there is understanding of the importance and power of our promises in addition to honoring our commitments enough to choose them wisely. I know I need to honor the promises I make to myself and G-d before keeping those to others. It doesn’t mean I won’t still put others first at times but it does mean my yeses and nos will have more resolve as I choose which commitments are necessary. It also means no more excuses and choosing to be a promise keeper.
What does my word mean if it’s not founded upon THE Word Himself?
