2 Ways to Protect Your Reputation
There is nothing worse than a nasty rumor. Think middle school. You know… when that girl you didn’t like so much started saying things about you that weren’t true. Your reputation could be put in question within a few class periods. Fast forward to 2013. As grown ups, we now have ways to put our reputation in question in much a shorter time than a lunch period. With one tweet or like or post, we can end up with some pretty big messes to clean up.I recently heard a radio announcer encouraging listeners to call so that they could help you "make your best most visible" and "the negative harder to find." In this social media era, there is an industry developing to protect your online reputation.I laughed at first. Isn’t that exactly what we attempt to do with social media anyway? We display our best and avoid our worst. We could add the clothing and cosmetic industry to that same list. We are always looking for ways to cover what makes us look bad and promote what makes us look good.While I don’t see most of my friends ever hiring a firm to help with reputation management, I don’t think that we should take our reputation lightly. We are known by our character. I was reminded of two things that I have learned over the years that can prevent any of us from needing to solicit help to protect our reputation:
If you take care of the way things look, you take care of the way things are
As a woman, if you keep yourself out of situations that appear compromising then you will avoid both the appearance of doing something less than honoring as well as the actual temptation that may be presented. For example, if you are in fun conversations with your husband’s friends on a regular basis, it could appear that you are flirting. The wise thing to do is to make sure your conversations are broadened to a larger group that always include the wives and direct your conversations more to the women. The same can be said for social media. If you are married, you do not need to be in extended dialogue on social media to men outside your family. If you think I am crazy, consider the fact that 30% of marriages cite Facebook as a factor in their divorce.
Leave Your Reputation at the foot of the cross
A wise pastor’s wife once told me this. It has saved me from making a fool of myself many times. In an imperfect world, many harmful things can be said to us or about us even if we have not done anything wrong. As a Christian, how are we to respond when we come under attack? Start by knowing that the One we are accountable to is God. Resist the temptation to defend yourself. During the storms when your reputation is challenged, hold tight to knowing that “if God is for you, who can be against you.”God is the ultimate reputation builder. If you love Him and follow Him, then regardless of what may come you can be at peace. Remember that He alone holds your identity and your reputation.