Honesty and Integrity as a Core for Human Relations

Honesty and Integrity, these are two words that has a huge impact to each and every one of us. Sometimes we hear these words, a lot of questions come out to our minds and then we keep on asking ourselves again and again until we are satisfied. It is very hard to completely know if we are an individual living with honesty and integrity.

I know that everyone can control themselves and be honest most of the time. But there will come a time when we are pushed to tell something which is not true. All of us have already told a lie. Be it to the people we love or to any strangers we meet. We are completely aware that we hurt other people’s feeling when they have found out later on the truth. Truth sometimes hurt. Though it hurts, it is the best option we have. If we are honest, then we can fix the problem at an early period.

People tend to be honest in order to build up their selves. Being honest is one of the qualities needed in a job/work because before they apply for it, they need to establish a trust that can last long or forever. Honesty is the way to test if a person can be trusted or not at all.

Not only in jobs/works, should honesty be indeed useful. At any rate of time, people must have honesty inside themselves for there are situations where other people might accidentally lose their important stuff in any places. Even if no one is looking, but at the very least trying to be honest just to yourself and to the Lord is very much appreciated. In the Philippines, an honest Filipino taxi driver returned a bag containing 2 million yen to the owner who is reported to be an OFW in Japan. For that huge amount of money, the taxi driver could have used it to spend the things he wanted for him and for his family but he still chooses honesty over spending more than 10 years imprison. The owner of the bag thanked the taxi driver so much that he cried his heart out because he has a family to rise.

There are exceptions when honesty goes in the way. We have the right to tell white lies. It is for the sake of other people. There is nothing wrong saying a lie when the reason is for the goodness of everybody. Just only promise to reveal the truth when the timing is already right. I believe that no matter if some says, “The end justifies the mean.” As long as truth is weighed at the end of the day, it is what important. For instance, you heard a bad news that you need to say to someone who should know it first but then right from the start you noticed that he/she might have a heart attack when they hear the news. So if I am you, I prefer taking the news as a secret and if the person I am going to tell the news about is in good condition, then I am free to spill the news to him/her. Let us analyze the situation before saying things up.

On the other hand, integrity is not innate to us. It is being developed over time. Many people are confused about the real definition of integrity despite the fact that having integrity is taught since grade school. What does integrity really mean? According to Oxford Dictionary, it is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles or the state of being whole and undivided. It simply means that having integrity is having a strong reliability on moral principles and ethics. When you have integrity, it actually means that you have honesty in yourself. If you are honest, it does not mean you have actually integrity. We can have integrity in our own ways; it is just that we should do what is right even there are no people acknowledging our own acts. An example of integrity is when a person apologizes to someone right away for doing a mistake. Simply by saying sorry, there can be seen an attitude of putting down the pride and learn to apologize frequently when a mistake is being committed.

Another sign of integrity is when a driver does not use his horns or drives aggressively when he is mad or something. The reason why is because those kind of people who do not transfer their madness to things means that they control their anger. There’s a lot more of examples of integrity that people do not notice that they are actually doing it. They just realize it afterwards.

Integrity is very important in our home, workplace, school, society, anywhere. It serves as a root for creating relations with other people. One of the reasons why integrity is very important is because it makes us a better person. We clearly make choices that are not selfish and are righteous. When we are a person with integrity, we can get a good reputation. Furthermore, integrity is low key appreciated by many. It is considered as a dying virtue nowadays. People these days try to make the right choice but with selfish purposes. Instead the right actions they should have chosen because it is for the sake of being right. Honesty and Integrity, these are two words that reveal who you really are inside and outside. Before it is too late, let us make good choices for the sake of ourselves and other people. There is nothing wrong if we try to be an honest person towards something. There is nothing wrong if we try to be a man of integrity. There is nothing wrong if no one is looking at you when you do a good act. Every right action you made will be appreciated soon, just keep on doing it and I swear to you that whatever it takes, it will make you whole.