Integrity + Honesty

Integrity: strong moral principles and moral uprightness, Often associated with those who are righteous. Honesty: free of untruthfulness, lies, and deceit, One with this quality today is unique.

People talk a lot about honesty and integrity, In the world we live in, these feel like a rarity. People trade these morals for clout or for fame, All they want is for people to know them or their name. These days, people care about trying to conform, They will give up anything to be a part of the ‘norm.’ But in doing this, they make several sacrifices. And this is why our world is facing this crisis:

People are pretending to be someone they are not, In this world of judgment, they’re afraid to get shot. Shot down by the critics, shot down by the cruel, Shot down by those who are pretending to be ‘cool.’

Honesty and integrity are starting to decay, Both things that I try to maintain day by day. They increase your honor, they increase your strength, You no longer need to hold the world at arm’s length.

Imagine if people brought back these two morals, Lies would be gone, along with small petty quarrels. People would no longer have the truth withheld, And to society they would no longer meld.

You can trust those around you; you know they are real. You don’t have to wonder, you know how they feel, About things good or bad, they don’t hide reality, They tell you the truth, in all actuality.

But at the same time, they respect those around them, They won’t force their ideas, they won’t try to drown them, In what they believe, their personal opinions, They know knowledge and understanding is a personal decision.

They let others believe what they think to be right But attempt to pull the ignorant from dark into light. But against this pull people continue to fight, And so they stay forever lost in the night.

This night is thick, and heavy, and dark, A place where people long to make only a mark, A way to be remembered, after they are gone, All they want is for their memory to live on.

But when faced with the truth, the real truth is, That this broken world is a place that is ruthless. Rarely allowing joy or truth in, It’s a web that the spiders continue to spin. They spin their webs, sticky and strong, Making us believe being truthful is wrong, And not an important character trait for all, If you don’t bend the truth, you are going to fall.

They are simply not right, these thoughts they put out, They make us feel shame, and they make us feel doubt. They make us think these morals should not be upheld. This is a message that needs to be yelled:

Honesty and integrity should not start to fade, They need to come back; this should not be delayed. In a world where we’re constantly lying to each other, Honesty and integrity must be rediscovered.

by Lane Voskamp