Honesty in a Real and Unreal World

Within a biblical setting, we have standards we can apply, though others may challenge them.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Proverbs 16:13 (NIV)

Kings take pleasure in honest lips;

they value the one who speaks what is right.

A discussion of how to promote honesty and integrity could go a variety of ways:

A Way Forward: The Mission-Driven Life

Step One: Identify your darkness

and kill it

The triggers that will derail our mission are familiar to us. Naming them and fighting them are at the heart of winning the ethical battle.

Side Note: While killing your darkness, set lines you will not cross.

Rehearse possible scenarios in which your darkness could get you into trouble.

Talk your way through the means you will take not to cross a line you've made.

Hebrews 12:1: So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.

Colossians 3:5: Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...

Use the replacement principle: For every dark area of your life, replace it with light.

Step Two: Determine to bring net benefit to the world

We live on this planet as people who either solve problems or are problems. Living as mission-driven means the world is better when we leave it.

Moralistic - "You really need to be good. God expects that of you; your family expects that of you."

Fear based - "Be sure your sin will find you out."

Self-interest - "Why mess up your life?"

Personal - "Do you want to be able to hold your head up at the end of the day?"

Step Three: Contribute joy, not pain, to those we encounter

Consider life for what it should be - not a set of rules, but an existence driven by mission.

Mission implies preparation that makes you the best you can be for the task ahead.

Mission implies that you live for a cause rather than for your own interests (though these may coincide).

We all live with enough pain in our lives. To add to the pain of another is to violate the mission.

Step Four: Start well to end well

Train yourself from the beginning so that the ending is what you intended.

1 Corinthians 9:27: But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Don't be this guy:

Be this person:

Lift Someone Up

SmartBrief on EdTech, November 4, 2014

I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course.

I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7

ASCD SmartBrief, September 15, 2014

Of course the very notion of personal integrity is open to question today.

• Powerful people run over less powerful people.
• Criminals get away with it.
• The power to hide our evil is always available to us.
• What's right and wrong anyway?

It's happening everywhere...

Lapses in integrity can easily turn into monumental personal disasters especialy in today's connected age. You have to wonder why people take the risk.

But they do.

Any thinking person would want to find a way to avoid the problem in the first place (or so you would think).

Honesty in a Real and Unreal World

Importance of personal intregrity, and how to advance in 24/7 information world