How many of you can honestly say you love math? Come on, tell the truth! Okay, here’s an “honesty” math problem. When does a half equal a whole? The equation looks like this: a half-truth = a whole lie.
Let’s think about that. When enough “half-truths” and “white lies” are floating around, your integrity becomes splintered. You may feel pulled in a thousand directions and may be unable to make decisions without the fear those “custom made” realities will come crashing down on you. You may also start to feel a misalignment of your moral compass.
With “Honesty” being a netlogx Operating Principle, I wanted to look up its definition. This is what Google provided: “The quality of being honest”. Big help, right? But when I read the synonyms, much was revealed about the word “honesty”. It said: integrity, uprightness, honor, morality, ethics, and righteousness. Are those words, and their principles, too big to strive for? I hope not.
I once heard it said that integrity is what you do when no one is watching. As for me, God is always watching, and I try not to let Him down. I think that integrity and honesty go hand in hand. If you have one, you should have the other.
Let’s look at a few things as an honesty and integrity test. They all start with “have you ever”.
- Have you ever taken anything from work for your personal use?
- Have you ever “borrowed” a music CD then ripped it to your computer?
- Have you ever copied something that is copyrighted without getting permission (book, DVD, CD)?
- Have you ever used someone else’s work product without asking their permission or neglected to give them credit?
- Have you ever kept the money when a cashier gives you too much back?
- Have you ever lied on your income tax statement?
- Have you ever told someone you would do something with no intention to ever do it?
Have you ever…?
Okay then, so where does honesty start? It starts by being honest with ourselves.
Experiencelife.com says:
“To find the roots of our dishonesty with ourselves, we need only look as far as our cultural patterns around language and lies. Most of us consider ourselves good people. We recycle our cardboard, give to charity and generally try to do the right thing when we have the opportunity. Yet most nice people also lie quite frequently. Why is that? And how has that become acceptable behavior?”
One thing stands out clearly: lying is something we do deliberately. Our purpose for lying is to intentionally deceive. Obviously, this type of activity seems at odds with being “nice.” How is it that we can consider ourselves good people and include lying or being dishonest? We may think our lying is for a good reason: to keep from hurting someone’s feelings, to smooth over conflict, to make someone happy or keep them from being unhappy. After all, what does it hurt to tell a little white lie or half-truth occasionally?
One last honesty math equation for you to consider: Whole truths = Whole lives. Think about it.
Excerpts from “Experiencelife.com”