35 INTEGRITY IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE
UNAWARE THAT YOU’RE CHILDREN ARE LOOKING AND LISTENING.

“I could just kill that dog,” exclaimed our grandson as the bothersome dog across the street from his home kept barking.

Our daughter was shocked by her three-year old’s statement. Where could he have gotten such a violent idea? Then she remembered muttering just the same words only a few days before when the howling dog had jarred her youngest son prematurely awake from his afternoon nap. She hadn’t realized that her older son had been in the next room and overheard her strong invective.

Your child is observing your every move and listening to your every word at home. You may forget that your child is around. But a child’s life silently records a parent’s life. Then at the most unexpected time, a child will speak or act just like us.

We may guard our hearts, our tongues, and our actions when we consciously know our child is looking. But what about those times when we go through our customary routines without thinking about how we sound or look to our child?

Integrity is who we really are on the inside. Integrity is what we do when we think no one is looking. The person our child becomes like is not the outer person but the inner person we are. The real you is who your child will become. Is the real you more like God or more like the world around you?

Are you willing for a child to repeat anything you say in private?

Are you willing for a child to model any of your behaviors?

But as for me, I will walk in my integrity;
Redeem me and be merciful to me (Ps. 26:11).