Your Character Matters more than your reputation.
The way that you ARE is more important than the way that you are perceived.
The way that you ARE matters MORE than the way people THINK you are. It might seem backwards in today’s world with the social media. Sometimes people will get a projected image of who they think you are or who they want you to be b/c they’ve seen you on through the filter of instagram, the likes of facebook, and the hashtags of twitter.
But once someone sees who an individual is outside of the social side, outside of a social business encounters, and in a very real life situation, that’s when who-you-really-are tends to come out.
Way too many people will devote their lives to manage, manipulate, and charm other people to like them.
Ms. Conaway would get people’s attention by relating to any story that she possibly could find.
If it was from an advocacy group, in the Facebook feed. “My man was in the army for 40 years, has done 6 tours between Iraq and Afghanistan.” would yield a reply such as “Oh yeah, i can totally understand how you feel. Mine was in the Navy.”
And, local folks will look at that thinking, “Wait. Wasn’t Brad in the Navy for 4 years and wasn’t that a few decades ago?” (yes)
Or she’d get something from her past and relate it to the present situation. A door breaking or getting a hole – be it from someone running into it, or an adjacent door knob hitting it, or from one of those over-the-door shoe organizers, if there was a broken door it trigger memories from an ‘apparent’ time that her first ex had broken a door when they lived back at Pensacola Christian College.
How people act an REact on a personal level (not just socially) but on a personal level matters. Either in a small group setting, or in a personal one on one relationship, having character matters more than what anyone else thinks or perceives.
Examples: Rick doesn’t want to be seen as someone who can’t separate truth from a lie. That’s not a perception that any pastor wants.
Katie might have a desire to be liked and to never been seen as a con artist or a manipulator. The character then becomes less important than defending the credibility of the reputation.
What would happen if those incidents had proper resolution? Perhaps a public statement of correction from the church, or something similar from some of the people in the community? That would go a lot further than having their “social” factor questioned by simply sharing some truthful integrity and pulling back the curtains of the perception.
People need to have confidence in knowing that you are NOT making an attempt to CONTROL how they see you. Communities need to be able to TRUST that someone is not purposefully trying to MANIPULATE the REALity of their character by simply putting on a social facade.
{{someone remind me to add videos and open records request}} 😉