A friend, Ellen Abbott from our Maryland days, asked me to help her with her Personal Progress goals (This is a goal setting program for the Young Women at church.). She needed someone to write their feelings about integrity and she thought of me. I got the her message on Facebook while we were on vacation. I messaged her back and told her I would be happy to help but I would like to write it after vacation and after some time to think about it. Ellen said that would be fine.
We got back from vacation last Sunday. This last week I thought about what my feelings were, searched out the dictionary for a definition and then sat down Saturday evening and wrote my response for Ellen.
After completing that response, I felt it was something I wanted to keep and remember. I determined to copy and paste it into my Blog so I would have it as a part of the journal of me. Here is my response:
The word 'integrity' comes from the Latin word 'integer' meaning whole or complete.
Today we use it with lots of other words like: moral integrity, the integrity of a computer database or defense system or even a piece of music. But most importantly, a person of integrity.
When I first thought of the word integrity in the context of this writing the word honest came to mind. The next word I thought of was moral. Then I thought of values. I checked some on-line dictionaries and found all three of these words as definitions. Yeah me!!
I hesistated, but then decided to go ahead and read Wikipedia's ideas. I actually found a sentence that I liked in their explanation of integrity. It was..."A person has integrity to the extent they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold." I believe that is a great explanation of living a life of integrity.
I tried to think of a recent example of someone I have interacted with that I believe has integrity. I very quickly thought of Detta Wilson. Detta lives here in Sadieville. We serve as officers on the Friends of Sadieville board and we are both members of the Countryside Homemakers Club. In a conversation with Detta she stated to me, "I have one principle I live by. If I say I'm going to do something, I do it!" I knew this was a true statement about Detta. I knew it was a character trait in her I already respected. It struck me strongly when she said it. Detta is a person of integrity.
My daugther, Andie, reminded me of a quote from Maya Angelou, "When you know better, you do better."
I believe my testimony of the doctrines taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has helped and caused me to live a life where I try to be a person of integrity.
Because I know I am a spirit daughter of a loving Heavenly Father, I want to live so I bring honor and respect to His name. I want to live so my very being reflects a love for His Son, Jesus Christ, so there is no question by my actions that I am a Christian with strong moral beliefs and values.
When we know that simple truth, that we are a child of God, and when we believe in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and try our best to live worthy of His grace and mercy through that Atonement, we can't help but be a person of integrity. At least, a person who is trying their best and lifting themselves up, dusting themselves off and trying again if they goof up.
So I believe integrity is being honest with myself and others as I live up to my moral standards and values in this mortal testing ground on a path back to my Heavenly Father.
Thanks, Ellen, for giving me pause in my hectic life to ponder on this and reaffirm in my heart and mind what integrity means to me personally and how I want to recommit and continue to be a person of integrity.
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