True Blue, Through and Through

taken from a BYU-I devotional by Sheri L. Dew on March 16, 2004

"True to yourself, meaning who you are as a son or daughter of God, and who you are in the process of becoming.  True to others, meaning that you do what you say you will do.  And true to God, meaning that you practice what you preach and that you are doing what you covenanted to do here in mortality."

I think integrity begins with being true to God.  If I have the desire and the understanding of who God is, and what His relationship to me is, then it shouldn't be a question of being true to God.  He knows me and loves me and wants me to be the best I can be.  He is even willing to help me if I do the things He asks of me.  Living up to that will automatically keep me true to myself and others.  Likes Sister Dew says, "Integrity is the foundational virtue upon which all other virtues are dependant."   

I think we live in a world where many people say or do things that they think we want to hear or see.  It can be hurtful to hear someone say one thing, and then turn around and tell someone else another thing.  Lack of trust can truly hurt a relationship.  And the opposite of that is being able to count on someone when they say they will do something.  I am not perfect at this, but I had a young women's leader growing up that taught us that "trying is lying", meaning that to say "you will try" is a copout.  We should either commit or not.  While I believe there is some gray areas where this is concerned, I saw her point.  By saying I will do something, I have made a commitment.  And to be true to my word, I will do it.  It may not be my best, or I may fail, but I will do it because I said I would do it.

Sister Dew gave 7 suggestions to help us become men and women of integrity:

1. Decide today, once and for all, and at all cost, that you will be worthy of trust - from family and friends, colleagues, and most importantly, the Lord.
2. Have faith that the Lord can and will help you, and then diligently seek His help - just like Nephi trusted that the Lord would instruct him in building a ship or hunting with a broken bow, he never doubted the Lord would help him. 
3. Make covenants and keep them - do what you say you will do, and being precisely and completely true to those covenants.
4. Stand up for what you believe and what you know is right - at every opportunity to do so.  True happiness comes only when you are living up to who you are.
5. Expect your integrity to be challenged - Satan won't tempt you just once.  You don't really know what you believe until your beliefs are tested.  In every trial comes a moment of truth when you must decide what you really believe.  Every time we choose to obey, our integrity is fortified.
6. Don't give up - this is a lifelong process.  Keep the commandments with exactness, seize the opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness from the Lord and others.
7. Covenant - or perhaps I should say, renew your covenant - with our Father and His Son to do what you came here to do - that is the ultimate expression of our integrity.

It would do me well to evaluate myself on a regular basis.  She even suggests doing a trial for the next 30 days, evaluating ourselves each night to see how we did that day.  When I find areas I can improve, I can trust that the Lord will help me change.  "He has the power to make [me] better than [I] have ever been."  What an amazing blessing that is for me if I can trust the Lord, and trust myself to keep my integrity and never compromise it.