Your reputation precedes you? Know what it is? Do others know of you before they meet you? Have you carefully sculpted what and how you present you (and does your behavior prove it)? Have you designed you? Or are you one who lets the chips fall where they may, the old ‘what you see is what you get’? These various presentments aren’t necessarily incompatible, nor are they complete. My question is do You know your reputation and is it ‘fair’ and what you want? What kind of reputation would you like to create?
“A good name [earned by honorable behavior, godly wisdom, moral courage, and personal integrity] is more desirable than great riches; And favor is better than silver and gold.” (Proverbs 22:1, AMP)
Do you believe this? That your rep is ‘earned’. And favor is critical, especially in those times that we don’t display our adult us. But it’s the ‘personal integrity’ that I believe is the most crucial. Interestingly enough, it is typically individually defined and operationalize… but also applied to others. Without integrity… who are we? There are many verses that speak to personal integrity, especially in Proverbs. When you search them out, you’ll understand just how important it is and how it does define you.
“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity Than a [rich] man who is twisted in his speech and is a [shortsighted] fool.” (Proverbs 19:1, AMP)
“He who walks in integrity and with moral character walks securely, But he who takes a crooked way will be discovered and punished.” (10:9)
Consider your own reactions to others. How much of whether you believe and trust them is based on how you view their integrity? If it’s important to you in your relationships with others, then it also must mean that others view you according to their understanding of your integrity. Also you can see that integrity is a descriptor of character. They are impossible to separate.
Suppose you have not presented the best example you could and wish to improve your reputation? Possible? Of course. Ours is a God of second chances (remember Jesus comment that we should forgive others seventy times seven – Matthew 18:22)? If God is willing to give us multiple second chances then we should do the same for ourselves and others. Never forget that Your reputation is yours to create… so you can also refine it. How? Do and Say those things that bring life to others, speak the truth in love. Doing these 2 alone, over time, will provide a foundation for others to grant us the grace of growing and changing…a person with a good reputation.
Our standard, I would recommend, comes from Titus 2:7, AMP
“And in all things show yourself to be an example of good works, with purity in doctrine [having the strictest regard for integrity and truth], dignified,”
