Read Proverbs 22:1

Unfortunately, we have grown accustomed to shrugging off lapses in moral character, manifested in secretive and deceptive lifestyles.

We are frequently told that trying to find people who value honesty and model responsibility, who promote fairness, accountability, loyalty, respect for others, and who hold to strong, upright convictions is not at all realistic.

"Such people don't exist...we need to stop requiring personal purity," we are told. Or, as one air-headed soul said during one recent presidential campaign, "We're voting for president, not pope."

To such an analogy, I reply "Nonsense!" That kind of logic (or rather, lack of logic) gives me the jitters.

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom for the Way (Nashville: J. Countryman, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.