One Person's Integrity (or Honour) is another person's stronghold!

I can remember clearly the day the Lord spoke to me and told me I was a perfectionist. "Huh! That's the last thing I am!" I was adamant(!). After all, a perfectionist was someone who was a details person, who was tidy and organised and well, nit-picky, wasn't that so? Now I have many faults but being a details person, tidy, organised and the rest, isn't one or even three of them. No there must have been some mistake.

But God simply does NOT get things wrong. He communicated to me that a perfectionist is someone who has unreal expectations of themself and of others. I judged others because they didn't do things the way I thought they should be done - the way I would do them......oh no, God was telling me I was judgmental, picky, mean-minded......well, if the cap fits.

Once I realised the truth - by divine revelation - I changed. I didn't like being a person like that. I wanted and still want to be more like Jesus, not more like me! These days my conscience rings a little bell when I realise I have false expectations of others.

If we are to embrace a culture of honour (and yes, I believe it is implicit in the good news of Jesus) we have to learn to see others as Jesus sees them. The view from heaven is very different to the view across a room. People are valuable and beloved of God and we need to be treating them with the same value and acceptance as He demonstrates towards us.

Aah, this is another aspect of the freedom Jesus promised us - freedom from judging others because they don't match up to our false expectations.