The Importance of Teaching Integrity

As parents we tend to teach our children a lot of things.  Many of them we teach intentionally;  they learn from us things like how to read and how to speak.  They hopefully learn some important life skills and by the time they leave the home they know enough of these things to make it on their own.  When they are little we teach differently than when they are older, but as parents we are always teaching.  Some things they learn unintentionally.  They learn our mannerisms, they learn how to relate to one another and how to pick a spouse from us, even if we do not teach these things directly. One thing that I am grateful for is that my father and mother made a point of teaching the value of integrity.

Integrity is defined by the 11th edition of the Miriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary as, "Firm adherence to a code of moral or artistic values."  My father always defined it as making sure that what we do is the same no matter who is looking or if anyone is looking at all.  I firmly believe that we need to teach both intentionally and unintentionally the value of integrity.  As we do so, there are a few key principles that I would suggest.

1. We found our integrity solely on the Word of God. 
Any other foundation or moral code is not worth clinging to, but the one that does not fail and never returns void is worth teaching and clinging to for the rest of our lives.  Teach your kids that we make choices not based on our own ideas or our parents ideas, but on what God says.  We do not make choices based on what feels right or makes us happy, we evaluate morality based on the Word of God and strive to live accordingly.

2. Integrity does not depend on social situations.
We do not choose to act one way in front of our parents or at church and then act another among our other friends.  This is not integrity, this is having two different moral codes (or more for some people).  We do not base moral decisions based on where we are at the time, we live with integrity to the moral code of God's Word wherever we go. 

3. Integrity does not come naturally.
In fact, we are really built to not show integrity!  Our natural selves are built to be moral chameleons.  We will, if given the chance, change multiple times to fit our own needs.  We will adjust morality and we will adjust our own understanding of the basics of right and wrong before we submit to an authority outside of ourselves.  In a very real sense we cannot have integrity apart from Christ.  Or I should say that we cannot have integrity based on the Word of God apart from Christ.  Our integrity before Christ shows itself in a complete and total allegiance to self and self alone. 

4. Integrity is best shown and taught.
It has to be both intentional and unintentional.  We need to both talk about it and live it.  We need to acknowledge to our children and to our family, and to our friends and even to our church family that we are imperfectly trying to have integrity in all that we do. 

5. When integrity is absent . . .
The consequences are enormous.  I might even suggest that this is part of the reason that students tend to leave the church at the age of 18.  I might suggest it is the reason that people do not see that the Bible or the Church is relevant.  It might be a part of the reason so many see the church and its people as hypocritical.  When we lack integrity, we lose our platform to speak to a lost and dying world. 

So parents, please teach your children by both your verbal instruction and by your actions about the importance of integrity!