THE DISPOSITION OF THE HEART

Let me start with a story that's dear to my heart...

The icing on the cake when I married Ron thirty-nine years ago was his beautiful daughter, Kelli Marie. Though I loved her as my own, I was young and knew nothing of motherhood and so felt "insufficient" as a role model for this beautiful little girl. One day, when Kelli was in College, Ron handed me a copy of a paper she had written for her English class entitled,  "The person I admire most." 

There, on ten neatly-typed pages, were story after story of how she had been watching me when I simply had no idea. What struck me was her emphasis on the little things, the un-obvious things I did and said that changed the way she felt about herself and ultimately dictated how she treated others as she grew.

Ethics —

They matter most in the details.

They start with what we chose to tell ourselves about who we are and about any given situation, and that choice dictates how we manage ourselves even when we think no one is looking.

But someone is always looking.

As a journalist and writer for more than 40 years, ethics are my professional obsession. But as a mama of that beautiful girl and three remarkable sons, the disposition of our hearts matters to me on a personal level more than I can explain.

It's not the big sweeping moments but the intimate details of my conduct, your conduct, that have the power to endure...not just in the days or weeks to come but as a legacy for future generations.

Those future generations?Our sons and daughters? Our students and young leaders? Are they watching?

And if they are watching, what are we doing, right now, that they would benefit from?
How are our still small moments changing lives for good?
Is our focus on looking for fault or being the person we wish to see in others?
Is our time spent cultivating hope or planting seeds of despair?

Are our minutes spent critiquing and criticizing or looking for every possible opportunity to see good in others?

ETHICS first depend on the disposition of the heart.

How we "act" is the offspring of who we really are.