Character: The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.
Reputation: The beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.
Those were the first definitions that popped up when I did a Google search on character versus reputation.
I posted a quote on Instagram today that I hesitated about before doing so. It contained a curse word. I am not going to write the quote here but I will give you a hint…the word started with an S. It was not vulgar or offensive to me. It was actually opposite. In context, the quote was on self-love and it expressed it in a way that spoke to me…like how desperately important it is to love yourself. I didn’t love myself for many years of my life, which caused me to make very poor choices in relationships and in life. Now that I do love and value myself I own it! I KNOW who I am now. God knows me too. He knows my heart and to me that’s what matters. I do not purposely set out to offend anymore. I actually do quite the opposite. People express themselves differently and it doesn’t make them good are bad…it makes them who they are.
My mom for example used to curse like a sailor at times. (Her favorite word was the S word too. Especially when she dropped something or things just plain were not going her way…which was a lot). So I possibly adopted a liking to that particular word from her. There are other words people prefer. I have probably said them all myself at one time or another. I choose not to anymore if I can help it. But sometimes is just comes out. Oops, I was being me.
So like Cookie Monster says, “Worry about your character, not your reputation. Your character is who you are. Your reputation is what others think you are.” I probably lost a few followers after I posted the S quote. And if so, I have a feeling it was because they just read the quote and unfollowed me immediately without reading my explanation. And that is perfectly fine. To me, that is a good way of weeding out the people who are not meant to be there in the first place. People who curse constantly just to be doing so offend me…but self-righteousness does as well. I like to think we are all doing our best and when we know better, we do better. We are HUMAN. We are imperfect creatures saved by God’s grace. If someone is always right and unwilling to listen to the viewpoints or feelings of others, then I am not sure I need to communicate with them anyway. I don’t believe in “anything goes” AT ALL. I strongly believe we need to be nice and encourage each other with purpose. I believe in being real and true to who you are though and I choose authenticity over being fake any day of the week. As long as my intentions are good, positive, consistent, and come from the heart, to me, that is good character.
I love me. And I hope you love YOU too. God loves you no matter what you say or how you express yourself. He is kind of awesome like that.
Blessings,
Stacey ~ iamalive