Integrity

This week I read two talks about being honesty in your dealings with others. 

I like in Sheri Dew's talk "True Blue, Through and Through", that she likened integrity as being true blue, through and through. She defines being true blue as follows, "True to yourself, meaning who you are as a son or daughter of God, and who you are in the process of becoming. True to others, meaning that you do what you say you will do. And true to God, meaning that you practice what you preach and that you are doing what you covenanted to do here in mortality."

I like the way Sheri Dew sets up this explanation of why we need to live with integrity every day. She says, "Joseph Smith didn’t declare that we usually believe in being “honest, true, chaste, benevolent, [and] virtuous” (Articles of Faith 1:13). On Mount Sinai the Lord didn’t say, “Thou shalt rarely covet”; or “Thou shalt not steal very often”; or “Thou shalt only commit adultery a time or two.” He said “Thou shalt not,” clearly delineating the line between integrity and infidelity, a line that when we cross we risk losing control of our thoughts, motives, and actions." 

How often do we rationalize our actions based on  phrases like "just this once" or "it's not that bad"? There is no "Thou shalt not...except", in any of God's commandments. Why do we try so hard to find loop holes when there are none. Sister Dew says, "Living with integrity isn’t necessarily easy, but it is far easier than the alternative. Integrity engenders confidence and peace of mind, whereas breaching integrity always has painful consequences." Life would be so much easier if we didn't try to alter our integrity but instead lived by it.

Sister Dew also brings up a good point. She mentions, "Integrity is the foundational virtue upon which all other virtues are dependent. It is the first rung on the character ladder. Where there is integrity, other virtues will follow. Where there is no integrity, other virtues have no chance of developing."
 

Stand up for what you believe. 

 


"If you want to feel real joy, keep the commandments and be true to who you are. It is actually easier to stand up for what you believe than to not do so." ~Sheri Dew





In "Making a Living and a Life" by Elder Lynn G. Robbins he made this awesome observation.

"Adam really had only one choice as to his life’s work – he “began to till the earth . . .” we are told in Moses 5:1.  He clearly had some challenges that you and I have not had to face.  However, his work environment did have some advantages.  Among others, he was able to set his own hours and approve his own sick leave and vacation time and he could not be fired.

He was not tempted by Jones’ law, either,  which states that our needs are determined by what our neighbor has. Without neighbors there were no property line disputes.  There was no coveting or jealousy, or envy, or selfishness or any of the sins that come with competition and comparison. 

In fact, Satan had very little to work with – there were very few sins with which he could tempt Adam and Eve.  Think about it – if you were the first man or woman what could he tempt you with?  Stealing? – no -- from whom?  Coveting – no.  Envy?—no.  Gossiping? – impossible – think about it.  Living beyond one’s means? – also impossible.  When you reflect on it, most serious sins involve others and would not become a possibility for Satan until the human race began to multiply and he could use competition and comparisons to appeal to the pride of men."

For some reason that gives me a great sense of satisfaction, knowing that Satan had to sit and wait, I'm sure impatiently, for there was nothing he could do.  

Elder Robbins continues, "In President Ezra Taft Benson’s classic talk Beware of Pride he said that “pride (the universal sin) is essentially competitive in nature . . .The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: ‘Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. . .’ (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10.) . . . Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else’s. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989, 4)

The competition that Satan was so anxiously awaiting could not take place until Adam and Eve began to multiply and replenish the earth.  When it finally did happen, it was in the work place and in the acquiring of material possessions where it occurred. It was here that he claimed Cain as his first victim as Cain fell prey to the Master Mahan principle “that I may murder and get gain” (Moses 5:31).  

The acquiring of wealth and material possessions would become Satan’s most fertile ground, tempting mankind with the cunning strategy that this world is our destiny and that anything and everything in this world is available for money. 

Working in this world to make a living was part of the Lord’s plan for His children, not just to survive, but to see how we would get along with others in making that living – to see if we would be honest in our dealings with our fellowmen.   Satan quickly recognized the work environment as a strategic setting to stir up all manner of sin, including covetousness, jealousies, self-indulgence, living beyond one’s means, anger, contention in marriages, infidelity, greed and envy, selfishness, even theft and murder."

After reading these two talks I made some decisions. I have chosen to live my life with integrity and to stand up for what I believe. I will seek the kingdom of God before the riches of man. I will strive to strengthen and serve others.