Truth and honesty most of the time inconvenience us when we are dishonest. And yet, what we are not is uncomfortable and unfulfilling. We need the truth to forge and understand our personal identities. We need honesty to communicate what our inner voices are truly saying and what we really need.
Honesty is necessary more than the cover-up deceit for a short while provides. Continuing a relationship or a connection with lies is inauthentic, destructive, and robs us of our peace of mind. We cannot function and do our best when we are constantly looking behind our backs and devising schemes to cover up an accumulation of lies.
Our Relationship Suffers
Our relationship suffers because of the breakdown of trust. We lose confidence in ourselves. Fear and doubt creep in and paralyze us. The only way to arrest this paralysis is to spout off the truth. The truth is inconvenient because we are so far gone and twisted with dishonesty. And there are consequences now from lying and from omitting the truth.
Our values are necessary as guideposts to our integrity as individuals and part of a community. Our straying from our values will make us pay for our disloyalty. We are in double jeopardy. That is why it is so hard to tell the truth.
Because we have invested so much in what we are not, we have little time, money, energy, and belief to invest in the truth. Because we are too determined to survive by living in denial, we have more fear than courage to be true to ourselves and face the facts of difficult situations. We become stuck and trapped in a series of lies.
Little do we know that the truth will catch up with us. By the time it does, our morale and the trust of people who believe in us and care for us will have suffered greatly.
We Need Integrity And Honesty
Apart from its redeeming quality - our issues are beyond genuine understanding and resolution without truth, we need it more than anything. We demand truth from people because we cannot do anything that is of value and consequence if we are powerless without reliable information.
You cannot say you love a person, have a relationship with her, impregnate a woman, and stand to live with her as a husband for the rest of your life. Only if you truly love a person can you do that.
You cannot say you care about a cause, invest time and resources in its advancement, wait patiently for it to bear results, and let the community benefit from its success. Only if you truly care about people can you do that.
Deceit Spares No One From Accountability
No matter what our cultural, social, and educational backgrounds are, we need integrity, because, without it, life cannot go on and progress. Real progress is made by people with shared visions and values. People communicate their shared visions and values through open and honest communication in a relationship or connection that is built on trust.
Without integrity, trust cannot persist. When we don't trust each other, our morale suffers. We lose peace and sleep. We are discouraged to serve the community. The community will not thrive and other people of stronger mettle will come between its citizens and inhabitants.
