 Values are statements about what you stand for and what is important to you. Values are your personal bottom line. They’re the way we can measure who you really are. Our values give direction to everything we do. They’re the basis for every decision we make…every action we take. Everything you do says something about what you value!

 Do you cuss? Do you cuss in front of other people? What does this have to do with your values? Are you going to continue to do that?

 I just want you to understand that everything you say, everything you do…says something about what you value! People are watching you just as you watch others. I wonder what they’re seeing?

 As leaders, we have to be able to take a hard look at the way we live our lives. I believe that there are three ways in which our values are most clearly demonstrated.

 The way we spend our time. If I say I value my children, but the first thing I do when I get home every night is sit down, turn on the T.V., and ignore my kids….then perhaps I don’t really value my children! I’m fooling myself… but I’m not fooling my kids!

 The way we spend our money. If I say I care about the poor, but my checkbook doesn’t show that I give to any charitable foundations that help them…if I’m not actively involved in feeding, clothing and educating them…then maybe I don’t really care about the poor as much as I’d like to believe I do!

 The way we treat other people. If I say I love my family, but I come home every night and yell at, beat, and abuse my spouse and children…then I don’t really love and value my family! I’m just a noise-maker…a bag of hot air…saying things I obviously don’t believe.  You see, these three things tell me a lot about what’s really important to you. If we do not live up to our values, then we are phonies…we’re hypocrites!

 Moments of truth are like windows into your real motives. They are situations that arise where you have choices. We can see who you really are by looking at the choices you make in that situation. An example of a moment of truth for you might be when you find a wallet loaded with money and credit cards that someone has lost. Your decision about what to do with the wallet is the window into who you really are. It’s at that point that I discover what you truly value.

 I think it’s true that we often make very poor decisions simply because we are unclear about our values! Are people watching you? You better believe they are! Let me share a story “ Lee Bason tells a story about being in a van with some of his peers when he was in high school. One guy lit up a joint and started passing it around. When it came to Lee, he flatly refused “to take a hit” in spite of the pressuring comments being made by others. When he got to the event they were all attending, he searched for and found another ride home.”

 John Gardner, former Cabinet Secretary, once said, “The challenge is not to find better values, but to be faithful to those we say we hold.”  Can you see someone’s values?

 Maybe we can’t see their values, but we can surely see what they value…by watching how they behave, listening to their opinions, and looking at their attitudes. When we see coaches breaking recruiting rules, or politicians doing illegal things for personal gain, or people making profit off of another’s misfortune, or business people cheating on taxes…we are seeing their values.

 As we look at what is happening in America today, I wonder what we would say about this country’s values?  What do you think? Have our values changed in this country over the last 30 years or so?

 I have to wonder what the epidemic of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases says about our nation’s values? And what about the dramatic increase in violent crime… especially among our teenagers! Or what about the increasing number of illiterate kids graduating from high schools and the declining test scores we’re seeing? And what about the increasing rate of teen pregnancy? What about the rise in gang activity we are coming to see?

 I believe that these things tell us a great deal about the values America has embraced. It’s been said before that, “A tree is judged by its fruit.” I think that’s true of people and countries, too, and if it is… then what kind of fruit are you producing? Is it good, is it bad, is it indifferent? And if the fruit of our lips are the words we speak, then I wonder what they would tell us about ourselves? When I asked earlier, if you cussed… what do our words tell us about what we really believe? What do our action tell us about our values? What kind of fruit are we really producing.

 …what we stand for… our personal bottom line! I wonder… are we really who we say are?

 In the middle of the page write “MY VALUES”