Virtues and Vices – Page 5 – REACHING HURTING WOMEN MINISTRIES

Virtue: a valued principle of good moral behavior; a holy habit.
Vice: a practice of wrongdoing, corruption of virtue; an unholy habit.

Integrity: Honesty and reliability in all things; consistency in the face of difficult circumstances. Integrating truth and action with body, mind, spirit and heart.

Hypocrisy: Pretending to have virtues or moral beliefs that one doesn’t actually have.

We get the word Integrity from the Latin adjective integer which means whole, complete, in sound condition. So for our discussion, integrity is wholeness in qualities as honesty, consistency of character.

What does it mean to live with integrity in our modern world?

Some people think they “have integrity” as long as they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they clam to hold. That’s not necessarily a good thing because those values and personal principles may be immoral.

While living in addiction, I insisted on being honest with my kids about my lifestyle so as not to be a hypocrite. I was living consistent with my values and beliefs but it was a life far from integrity!

This month we’ve been working Step 5: Admitting our wrongs to God, ourselves and another human being. We’ve also looked at Anne Paulk’s book Restoring Sexual Identity. Coming clean to another person about your most shameful wrongs and stepping out of an unwanted lifestyle require tremendous Integrity.

Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in You. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. ~ Psalm 25:21 NIV

We think we can be accepted as long as we try to be what others want us to be. Deep down we want to be different but fear and cowardice stop us. Only with God’s help can we stop pretending, living a self-divided, not knowing who we really are.

“Integrity is a natural wholeness that opens the door to supernatural holiness.” ~ Donald DeMarco

Once we desire to live a life pleasing to God and not man, we will learn His requirements and strive to live by them. Integrity – being what we say we are – keeps us from claiming to be upright while living as if we don’t know God.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. ~Roman 12:2 NLT

Do you struggle with integrity in certain areas of your life?

Resources:
Christian Virtue by Patty Woodmansee
The Heart of Virtue by Donald DeMarco
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Wikipedia

Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. ~ Maya Angelou

Virtue: a valued principle of good moral behavior; a holy habit.

Vice: a practice of wrongdoing, essentially corruption of the virtue; unholy habit.

Courage: the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation in spite of fear; choosing the morally difficult right over the easier wrong.
Cowardice: the inability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation;
choosing the easy way out.

Like many of you, I grew up with the lion in The Wizard of Oz as an example of courage and cowardliness. When Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man meet the lion he acts like a bully. He thinks by being rough and tough he can hide his true cowardly nature. At the root of cowardliness is fear and selfishness.

When the wizard finally awards the lion his “Courage” medal it’s for an act of bravery in the face of fear and danger, motivated by unselfish love. At the root of true courage is LOVE.

You may be in the midst of serious personal trials: job loss, marriage and family stress, health issues, financial problems, etc. How can you find courage to press through?

The first and best thing that helps me during trials is God’s Word. The book of Psalms is a wonderful place to start. Many of the psalms were written during times of great pain and suffering. These sweet songs can help supply us with words so in our pain we can find a way to praise the Lord. God knows our heart, if we honestly cry out to Him, He promises to hear and answer.

Another way to find the courage to face our own troubles is to help someone else. When we get our mind off our problems, by sowing a seed of goodness in another person’s life, God will give us the strength to press through our own life struggles.