• by Vimala Rodgers • Honesty means always speaking to the God within the other person, just as we appreciate their speaking to the God within us.
Honesty is not to be confused with “the facts”, knowing that the facts are often bent and gnarled from our interpretation of them. To speak honestly is to speak in such a way that our words are never injurious but a source of grace and healing for both ourself and the person to whom we are speaking.
But honesty does not stop there. It stretches beyond the boundaries of simply telling the truth and embraces integrity. Like a body without a heart, without the one the other cannot exist. Integrity is that quality which prevents us from doing, acting, thinking, or saying anything that conflicts with our value system. To some it may imply keeping one’s word. When teamed with honesty, it shifts in depth to encompass “being your word.”
Brother Lawrence, from The Practice of the Presence of God:
We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking frankly and plainly, and imploring assistance in our affairs, just as they happen. I have often experienced that God never fails to grant it.
Norman Paulsen, from Sacred Science:
Integrity, an internal moral compass, starts at home and spreads outward into the world in which we live. Practicing the virtue of honesty reveals the law of cause and effect: whatsoever a person, group or nation sows, that shall they also reap. The law of cause and effect is the eternal law created by God, spoken of by the ancients. We cannot escape it. Another name for it is the law of karma, or action and reaction.