Proverbs is right: Having a good name is a terribly important thing. It is important in business, it is important in society, it is important at home, in a family. When we lose our good name, we have lost our trustworthiness. Sometimes it cannot be replaced.

How do we know if we have a good name? What is the measurement? Is it the absence of gossip? Or the presence of trust? Is a good name something that we start out with only to find it comes up missing once we have done one or two things wrong? Or does a good name only begin to be threatened after three things? Again, how do we know? Indeed, do we know?

Having a good name is not just having a good name. It is a matter of the inner matching the outer — and it is also a matter of grooming and training our inner to be good. Very few of us…