The two words I heard most often in the Navy were: “Watertight Integrity;” which only makes sense because without it we wouldn’t have a fleet of ships and submarines. I was a navigator on nuclear submarines and the issue of being watertight couldn’t have been more important as we would go hundreds of feet below the surface to do our jobs; water surrounded us; we could be compromised from any direction.
The thing about remaining watertight is that we couldn’t even have a pen hole in our hull or we’d drown. Our submarine was 425 feet long and three stories high so I hope you can imagine how amazing it can be for just a small hole to sink a submarine.
The concept of being watertight has implications beyond boats and ships as it’s applicable to our lives as well. We are to have watertight integrity if we want to succeed. One small hole and our lives can sink. So the question is what causes holes? What should we look out for?
The thing about integrity is that it isn’t something that you generally lose all at once it’s a slow drip. The easiest way to describe what starts a leak is when anytime we do something that we wouldn’t want someone else to know about…this is what causes the leaks to begin to spring leading to a flood that drowns our lives and our reputations.
Our integrity matters…especially if we have children to whom we should set a good example. We can’t become so big that something little can’t destroy us (history has proven this). Like the Navy stays vigilant about watertight integrity we must do the same for our lives not only for ourselves but all of those people in our lives that we have the honor to influence.
The thing about remaining watertight is that we couldn’t even have a pen hole in our hull or we’d drown. Our submarine was 425 feet long and three stories high so I hope you can imagine how amazing it can be for just a small hole to sink a submarine.
The concept of being watertight has implications beyond boats and ships as it’s applicable to our lives as well. We are to have watertight integrity if we want to succeed. One small hole and our lives can sink. So the question is what causes holes? What should we look out for?
The thing about integrity is that it isn’t something that you generally lose all at once it’s a slow drip. The easiest way to describe what starts a leak is when anytime we do something that we wouldn’t want someone else to know about…this is what causes the leaks to begin to spring leading to a flood that drowns our lives and our reputations.
Our integrity matters…especially if we have children to whom we should set a good example. We can’t become so big that something little can’t destroy us (history has proven this). Like the Navy stays vigilant about watertight integrity we must do the same for our lives not only for ourselves but all of those people in our lives that we have the honor to influence.
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