Integrity is a very important characteristic. Integrity is not something that we are born with and it is not something that we can learn over night; however, it is a characteristic that we as parents should possess. It is also our duty as parents to make sure that our children are raised to have integrity.
The recession has a way of showing the lack of integrity in a lot of people. I recently heard on the news of a lady with a new born that had to go out of the country for approximately 8 to 10 months, so she had the post office hold her mail, she locked up her house securely and headed out of the country. When she came back there was a woman in her house. When the owner of the house asked the woman what she was doing in her house, the woman told her that she found the house empty, had water, sewer and electricity turned on in her (the squatter's) name; therefore, the house was now HER house!!!! My jaw dropped when I heard this story. Needless to say, the squatter does not have integrity because someone with integrity could not live in a house that did not belong to them unless they had permission. So now the owner of the house has to live in her own house with her toddler and the squatter because she does not have enough money to pay an attorney to fight this for her. All the while, the squatter is living in the house free of charge!!!
How can we make sure that our children have integrity? First of all, by our example. We need to make sure that our children see us being honest. If the cashier gives us too much money back, we need to make sure our children see us give that money back to the cashier. We need to teach our children that if it is not theirs, DON'T TOUCH IT without permission from the owner. Teach them to be honest in everything. Teach them not to lie. Teach them that a "little white lie" is the same as a big black lie. Teach them to be respectful to their elders. And especially for the months coming up, we need to make sure that they see us filing a honest tax return.
One thing that I did with my children was every night for devotions we read a chapter from the book of Proverbs. All the books of the Bible are important, but the book of Proverbs is a very important book to teach and apply whether we are on our own or whether we have children.
Let's determine to not let the recession show our lack of integrity; instead, let's determine to use the recession by allowing it be a learning tool with your children. Let them see us living and doing right no matter the consequences and no matter the state of our economy. Integrity cannot be bought.
