If you could name five qualities you admire most in people, what would they be? Many would mention kindness, loyalty, faith, a loving personality, and compassion. I would include a sixth quality and that is honesty. Honesty means more than just telling the truth when asked a question. It involves being honest in all aspects of life, such as taking care to file an honest tax return, returning lost property to its rightful owner and trying to avoid double standards.
Honesty is the backbone of a trusting relationship
Imagine what kind of relationship you would have with your spouse or significant other if you did not have an honest, open relationship. He tells you he is working late, but you have already called his office and he has left. Can you trust a person who would do this to you on a regular basis? How can you be sure that he is not cheating on you? It is true to say that couples who regularly lie to one another often do not really have a trusting relationship. When you are in a loving relationship, you need to be honest with one another if you hope to earn one another's trust. If your partner has cheated on you, the most important building block that will help the relationship recover is honesty. A person who fails to tell the truth is not showing that they want to make any changes to what they have done and there is no guarantee that they are not still cheating.
Honesty can help a person keep and maintain a job
No employer wants to hire a person who is a habitual liar. If they lie at a job interview, they will not get the job and if they make false claims about qualifications, they can be fired once they get found out. But those who pursue a course of openness and honesty at work will earn their employer's respect and trust. They are also more likely to be placed in increasing positions of trust, because they have proved their worth as integrity keepers, which is what honesty really boils down to.
Honesty means coming clean
Children who lie to their parents do so because they do not want to be found out about some questionable activity that they have been engaging in. Perhaps they have lied about where they were spending the night because they knew their parents would not approve of their friend or what they were up to. No parent wants to find out that their children were smoking round a friend's house instead of staying over and doing their homework together. But if children are taught to practice honesty early on, they would be more likely to feel a sense of shame about their intentions, rather than do something bad and then try and cover it up. Children who lie to their parents will not be treated in the same way as those who are honest about what they do. Parents will not be keen to extend the same privileges to them in and outside the home. As a result, they will not be trusted.
Even so-called "little white lies" can damage a relationship irreparably. I know that if someone lies to me I do not look at that person in the same way and I lose respect and trust for them. A lot of hurt can be avoided if people learn to be honest. They will gain more respect, responsibility and have a good reputation among their friends, family and others. Telling the truth at all times takes effort. If you make a mistake, rather than try to cover it up, just own up to it and deal with the consequences. This should help you to avoid making the same mistake twice. No one wants to have a reputation as a liar, do they?
