Integrity

“Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.”

I think most of us can agree that Integrity is an important part of our character. It defines how we act as ourselves when we believe no one is watching and is the actions we go through with when it is our own decision. Some people have a lot of integrity, but there are those that don’t see the importance of that aspect of their character.

There is something that inspired this conversation for me. In my family, as I have mentioned before, I have two older siblings. I only live with one of them, a 25 year old sister, who I generally get along with. I used to look up to her when I was younger because I am 6.5 years younger than her.

This trust  I  had in her is leaving due to recent events. She has started dating a certain guy again who she broke up with many years ago. I didn’t think much of it at the time because she dates a lot, but now that they are back together, she is breaking her promises to us. She has failed to appear at numerous family events that we always attend and has not been paying the money she owes my mother. This was money they had agreed on for her to stay living at home as she is old enough to have moved out on her own by now.

This issue has only continued to progress as time goes on with her dating this man. We know that she has been ‘accidentally’ leaving her money with him in order to avoid assisting us with what we need. This has happened even with multiple promises to get money to us. The main issue for me is that this causes me to be required to lend money, from my graduation, for the family to get by. Even though it will be paid back, it is not my job to assist the family. That is her job and her promise to my parents.

We all have that person in our family, or circle of friends, that goes back on their word constantly. They are usually doing it for their own personal gain, even if they tell themselves it’s for the good of someone else. In this case, she might believe she’s assisting this man’s younger child. We all believe he is simply using her to assist with the money he requires right now. Even though we can’t prove this, it is the easiest answer and she has stopped going through on her promises aligning with this man coming back into her life.

I think we all recognize this issue existing all around us and wish we could fix it, but there are parts of the quote I listed at the beginning that are not accurate. The idea that having integrity doesn’t help you in some way is false. If you follow through on your promises of helping other people, doesn’t it help you feel better about yourself? Doesn’t it give you a better look on life? I believe it does to this day.

Discussion 

Thanks for reading this post if you made it all the way through it. I apologize for the ranting in this post, but it was meant to get certain emotions out about my current situation.

Do any of you have siblings, or other family members, who constantly go back on their promises?

Share your story in the comments of this blog post or on my Twitter which can be found on the sidebar on the left. Hope to see your comments in one of those places.

Happy Blogging.