In our culture today we all know what it’s like to be disappointed. We know what it’s like to pick up a product thinking it will be one thing only to find that we fell victim to false advertising. Integrity unfortunately sticks out like a sore thumb because it’s so rare. When you get to know a person you almost expect there to be the public side and the private side. What is he hiding? What is she not telling me? Edwards’ 21st resolution deals with authenticity….(If you’re new to this blog, I’m going through 1 resolution of Jonathan Edwards each day)

Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

I hear Edwards saying that he wants to be a whole person. He doesn’t want to judge someone for one thing and then do the same thing himself. He wants to say what he means and mean what he says. I don’t know many people who are like this. You see people all the time that come off as shady. You never know what you’re going to get with them. Their word on any given subject doesn’t mean a whole lot because they’re all over the place.

I want to learn from Edwards’ example here. I want to be the same in private as I am in public. I want people who know me the best to think the most of me. Sometimes that’s not always the case. It’s much easier to appear great in public and then to let all the negative stuff come out behind closed doors. This is the way of the world and it’s what most people expect because it’s all we see when we look at the world. Let’s be weird in this way. Let’s be extraordinary. Let’s be a what you see is what you get kind of people.