The word of the week is integrity but can you say you really know what it means, a few words on how it can help you and your children.
Integrity means acting in accordance with your morals, being honest and doing what you know is the right thing to do, even when no one is watching.
With integrity you are honest and therefore a much more reliable source of the truth. People will believe you because they know you are an honest person, however without integrity, even if you tell the truth eventually people still won’t believe you because they can’t trust you.
A classic example of this is the boy who cried wolf, lying to the villagers, making them believe there was a wolf when in fact there wasn’t, and when there really was nobody believed the boy.
Integrity also means doing what you know is the right thing to do.
“Do what’s right, not what’s easy”
-Roy T. Bennett
At MAC we use martial arts to teach integrity, doing what you know is right.
Imagine your child is out with friends and a friend wants to do something you told your child not to. Some of us do know how hard it is to say no to friends and some of us don’t, but peer pressure can be extremely hard to fight against. Reinforcing integrity in children helps them know that it is ok to say no to anything they know they shouldn’t do, therefore keeping them safe and healthy, this is great for their future.
People who are known for their integrity need not explain what they say or the actions they do, people already know they are doing what is right in their minds.
“I honour the man that can be neither bribed nor frightened into doing wrong”
This quote comes from 19th century England, and spoken by the duke of Wellington, after a servant boy refused to allow huntsmen and the duke himself access across a field where they may destroy his master’s crops.
The fact that a duke had asked for access did not deter the boy in standing for his morals, he knew that the right thing was to save the crops, even when frighten he stood his ground.
In the busy world of today where “two-faced” is a commonly heard muttering, speaking the truth and honestly answering to different people is an important quality.
Integrity comes from the Latin term integer, which just means a whole number, non fraction or decimal, just a whole number, and so integrity is a person being whole, complete and unbroken. It is proven that this mindset brings happiness. There cannot be partial honesty or partial integrity. Dual morality leads to misery. Saying one thing yet doing another only leads to people having no trust in you and therefore people choose to be around you less.
This is extremely important to children. Social interaction in children is important for their development, therefore if a child has high integrity all other children similar to them know they are a truthful and trustworthy friend. Your child would be the one they turn to for friendship and advice, giving your child that confidence that was written about in the blog previously.
Integrity gained from martial arts learnt during childhood allows them to grow into a much happier adult, with a well developed set of positive character traits which will see them well equipped for anything that the future may bring.