Committing to Integrity

    It is a new year.  Perhaps you have either committed to yourself or to a few others, something that you want to change or develop in your life.  Maybe you are committing to be a better student, to pull up your grades in a certain subject, possibly  working to be a better friend or this year is the year you are going to train better, to be the athlete you dream about.  Hopefully you will stick to what you said or are hoping you would do.  

   One area that does not get much emphasis is our character, which, in reality, affects every area of our lives.  A man named Thomas McCauley said, “The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he would never be found out.”  Think about that for a minute.  There are things we do not attempt doing because we figure we will be found out and then have to own up to what we did.  

   What would happen if everyone in our school, where we work or even in our family, if each one of us was diligent about becoming a better person of integrity – what we do by ourselves is the same as in public.  Basically, am I the same person in public as I am in private?  People who are consistently the same tend to be trusted more, are more reliable and viewed with greater respect.  

   Here is a simple test.  Let’s say you found $5 on the floor in your classroom or yo ...