10 Ways to Be a Man of Integrity

great stuff from All Pro Dad…

One of the best definitions of character we’ve ever heard goes something like this: “Character is what you do when no one else is looking.”

This is one reason golf is such a great life-lesson game. It’s the only professional sport where the participants call penalties on themselves.

But men of integrity value what is honest, true, noble, trustworthy, kind, and right ahead of personal gain. Once integrated into our foundational operating system, integrity ceases to be optional or “add-on”, but instead becomes a way of life.

Here are some suggestions that will help once we decide to make integrity a foundational value:

Click here to read these ten helpful ideas.

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Are You A Double-Minded Man?

James 1:8 tells us,

he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Let me ask you a few questions that relate to this issue of being double-minded…

• Are you the same guy at home with your family as you are at church?
• Are you the same guy at church as you are work?
• Are you the same guy when you’re “out with the guys” that you are here in this group?
• Are you the same guy with your family as you are sitting alone in front of the computer or television screen?
• Are you the same guy away on a business trip as you are at home?
• How radically different is your thought-life from your public persona?

Those are some pretty tough questions. And while none of us probably moves from sphere to sphere – from group to group – with perfect consistency, we still need to ask the question: How wide are the gaps?

Part – perhaps most – of that consistency will come from how “integrated” our lives are regarding our relationship with God.

Now obviously, the words “integrated” and “integrity” come from the same root word. One of the dictionary’s definitions for integrity that I thought was quite helpful for our discussion was this:

“the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished.”

The double-minded man, however, is not a man known for his integrity, but his duplicity. Duplicity means…

“deceitfulness in speech or conduct; speaking or acting in two different ways concerning the same matter with intent to deceive.”

The duplicitous man does not have integrity. He is not whole, entire, or undiminished. He has no unifying factor that keeps him whole.

But the Christian man, the man of God, does have such a unifying factor. The question is: Does he make use of it? Is he related or connected to it? This unifying factor isn’t an “it” at all. I’m talking about God.

You see, we’re called to be God-centered men who are living God-centered lives. Such a man will not speak, think, and act differently and deceptively with different people and in different settings.

Why? Because the man of God will be vitally connected to the same God in every sphere of his life. God doesn’t change. And because this man’s life will have God as his unifying center, he won’t change either…at least not for the wrong reasons.

God-centeredness makes and keeps men whole – not men who are fragmented and compartmentalized.

Think for a minute about what the Great Commandment is. Jesus says in Mark 12:30 that we are commanded to…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

That’s all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. In other words, with all that we are. Our whole being. Every sphere of our lives.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31…

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

You’re not glorifying God in the big details or small details of your life if you’re double-minded. By the way, that’s a good way to check yourself out. Ask yourself: Am I glorifying God right now? Does this thought, word, or deed bring God glory?

A couple of Old Testament texts that really hit home are…

• 1 Chronicles 29:17a – I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. (idea of being whole-hearted)
• Proverbs 10:9 – The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
• Proverbs 11:3 – The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.

That’s pretty clear. God expects us to walk with integrity before him and others.

This is an investigation to check out our…

• Spiritual Integrity
• Mental Integrity
• Sexual Integrity
• Biblical Integrity
• Behavioral Integrity
• Verbal Integrity
• Moral Integrity
• Relational Integrity

How are you doing in those spheres of your life? I don’t know about you but I want to be the same man in every sphere of my life:

• In private
• At home with my family
• At work
• At church
• With my friends

I want to be the same guy regardless of whom I’m with… and regardless of where I go. So brothers, let’s pray that God will form and shape us into the God-centered men of integrity that he’s called us to be.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Integrity in Real Life

I posted this over at my new site this morning, Southside Men. I thought it was certainly worth sharing over here as well. Enjoy.

Integrity is more than just something we talk about in our small groups. We study it, talk about it, and pray for it so that we’ll live it every day of our lives… even when there’s every temptation not to. The following story is a great illustration of what I’m talking about. Here’s an excerpt…

What happened in the junk off the 18th green at the Harbour Town Golf Links could have all been avoided if Brian Davis had only taken the easy way out.

That, however, was never really an option. Davis was going to play the shot out of the hazard instead of taking a penalty drop because it was probably the only chance he had to finally win a golf tournament.

And for that, golf can be grateful.

If this was some kind of fairy tale story, Davis would have won the tournament he so desperately wanted to win. It’s not, and Jim Furyk’s name is on both the winner’s trophy and the $1.026 million check.

Don’t expect Davis to be happy about that. He’s tried too long and too hard to win a PGA tournament, and this one was almost in his hands.

“You’re not playing for second, but playing to win,” Davis said. “But I can hold my head up high.”

Click here to read the rest at Yahoo News.

Blessings,
Dale

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