Integrity

Dear All

My week has been a handful and productive one. As you can see I have a website coming up soon and thanks to My senior Pastors the Deuschles for the dna they planted in me, Thumiso for believing in me that I could do it, Pastor Paul, Junior, Fari and her friend who got me writing again and all those who kept on encouraging me that I could do it, but above all I thank God for enabling me and I trust the future is definitely bright. Oh not forgetting my teacher Ivy, for the spellings and grammar corrections that helped a lot cause now I read over and over again before I hit the send button. The name came about as a reflection of how God made us as a people. How we have so much inside us and how beautiful we are inside, yet many times we pass by ourselves without ever discovering the real design God has for our lives. We all have what it takes within us to be the best, we need to discover who we are and find our position and only then can we be able to show our beauty that’s within. I pray that through ‘the tapestry within’ you will discover your position as I am trying to define mine and have true domain God intended for us. 

This weekend I picked up a book by Jonathan Lamb ‘INTERGRITY’ leading with God watching’. Integrity is important; we expect it, naively perhaps, from all leaders in all walks of life. We trust people whose words, character and actions are consistent. But why is integrity so rare? Why does our walk not match our talk? But integrity has a second related meaning that is more common in everyday conversation. We use it to describe soundness in terms of truth and morality. Integrity means we are upright, honest and sincere. We can be trusted because there is a consistency of word, character and action. This is the outward expression of inward integrity. The more I read on the more I started asking myself if I do have integrity. When you look in the world today all these leaders they talk one thing and do the other, even in the churches today, in our homes we talk one thing and do the other. If we are to infect the world and change it for the better and start seeing this rare thing called integrity, we need to start challenging ourselves everyday on our walk against our talk. When leaders’ lives fail to match up with their words, we give up listening. We stop taking them seriously. I have been asking myself if I am worth calling myself a leader, so many of us we want to be in the leadership and I am reminded the book by Dr John Stanko ‘so many leaders and very little leadership’. I have observed that so many of us, when we are in the audience of those we want to lead we speak about how they should conduct themselves yet when we are away from them we act differently[ the common phrase, do as I say not as I do]. We forget that integrity is still displayed when the audience is gone.

[In genesis17vs1-2 God told Abram to walk before him blameless.] That was integrity God was asking of his friend. God test the heart and integrity is living blamelessly with God watching. While I am challenging you and I may seem as a respected leader and faithful church member, I know my capacity to deceive myself and others. I am aware of my struggles with inconsistent Christian attitudes and behavior, my inadequacies at home, my double standards as a business person, my half –heartedness as a worshipper, my faltering steps as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I limp along slowly before his watchful eye, I am frequently ashamed and know I need help, but our God is merciful and I find the grace of forgiveness and encouragement to keep moving forward. I have been challenged so I felt like challenging you too. In the last weeks I wrote about living a life worth remembering, I believe this is possible when we have a mission/purpose, but to stick to it we have to have a pure heart, reliability, true accountability, serving others, trust and the list goes on. All this is integrity. The beauty about integrity is that one can recover it. In writing about crisis of leadership, Walter Wright suggests that integrity can be shaped through the process of failure if it’s handled in the light of God’s grace. So we do have hope. Enjoy the week and be challenged I am. 

Power Thought

‘The most effective witness comes from those who embody the things they saying. They are their message. Leaders need to look like what they are talking about… what communicates now is basically personal authenticity.’ 

Let us be real and honest with ourselves, this week and life will start having a real meaning. Start with leading yourself with integrity, and be honest to lead you before you lead others?

Leticia Kuda Mupawose

Success Motivation International

Gauteng- South Africa