Cheaters

I had an early morning meeting at the local pubic high school. I serve on a council that tries to help improve things. Good people. The topic today was academic honesty. You don't need to tell me you cheated once in school. Maybe you are one of the few who did not. It can be anything from getting help with an assignment to actually looking at a paper.  It does not take much to cheat.

Why do they do it? Same reasons we did it. Laziness, lack of moral compass, expediency, fear. I am sure there are many motives. As I sat listening to the plans to thwart it, I thought, "We need to go to the root." Honor codes and policies may not help much.

I wonder if we took an approach like this: "Look we all have a tendency to cheat. It is a life long issue. It includes: not quite stopping at a stop sign, coming in late to a meeting and spending too much time at wok and not enough time at home." 

We are cheaters. How can we become less so? Maybe by beginning to see that it is a deeper issue. An issue of idols (fear, approval, sloth). And maybe by beginning to tell students that they are not alone. We are in this together and we want them to have a healthy base of values to carry them forward. For those who believe in the power of the gospel, we know where to run. To the one who did not cheat even death. He took every blow and stood every test. He is the one who can help us walk with integrity. 

For those who do not believe in Christ, I can say they can use modeling, strategies and "helps" to get there. Not that we  Christians do that much better, but we have a solution that can help us to move in a direction of holiness. 

Blessings