This week we are considering the Honor Code’s instruction to be “upright in conduct.”  The idea of uprightness is frequently expressed in the Bible using two different Hebrew words: “Yashar,” which means straight, and “tam,” which means perfect or complete.  In a sense, being upright in conduct is a matter of being on the straight and perfect path.

In fact, God himself is described as “upright” in Isaiah 26:7, which says that He, the “upright One, make[s] the way of the righteous smooth.”  Being upright, then, is not so much about checking off a list of good deeds that we do, so much as it is a good and straight path that we are on, that God has laid down, and that we do not deviate from as we walk through life.  It is when we stray from the path that we get lost.

Of course, none of us is perfect—Ecclesiastes 7:29 says that “God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”  Staying upright is actually quite simple—all we have to do is not drift from the straight path—but it sure isn’t easy.  We often are enticed by things that take us off the right road.  The good news is that God will always help us return to the path that is yashar and tam, if we truly desire to be on it.

Have a wonderful day.