The wise mama teaches her children: Take care of your reputation!
“Help us, please!” was the message in an email I received last week from a business I like and respect. A customer had criticized the business horribly in a Google review. The email I received noted that the customer had behaved very badly in the store, and the staff had acted as they had to do under the circumstances. When efforts to remove the review had been unsuccessful, the company sent out a request for reviews from satisfied customers, knowing that a few positive reviews would push that negative one further down the list and soon out of sight.
This company has helped me by email, by phone, and inside their store. I was eager to help them, so I wrote a glowing review. Now that I think about it, I’m glad I did that for my own good as well as theirs. This business is so great at what they do that I want them to stay in business, not only for them but for me. The business is small, and it has been wonderful to be able to get my questions answered by real, live human beings.
A bad reputation can be a millstone. A good reputation is a wonderful blessing.
A good name is to be more desired than great wealth,
Favor is better than silver and gold.
Proverbs 22:1
How we conduct ourselves is a reflection on our families, our churches, our friends, and our communities.
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles,
so that in the thing
in which they slander you as evildoers,
they may because of your good deeds,
as they observe them,
glorify God in the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:12
A little girl in Toulouse, France, sees her reflection
as an American Red Cross teacher uses a mirror
to teach her how to have good posture,
October 31, 1918, photo by Lewis W. Hine,
courtesy of the Library of Congress
Our reputation begins in childhood. The wise parent teaches her children: Take care of your reputation!
It is by his deeds that a lad distinguishes himself
If his conduct is pure and right.
Proverbs 20:11
And it continues even after we are gone.
The memory of the righteous is blessed . . .
Proverbs 10:7a