Integrity

By today's standards, to say that you love someone could have so many different potential meanings. That's why, looking for integrity in a mans life is important to me. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. It's basically who you are when no one is looking. You doing what's right regardless to whether or not it benefits you. Meaning that your yes means "yes" and your no means "no". So often, a person says that they love you when in fact what they could really mean is, "I want to be with you as long as my needs are met regardless of your needs." To me, a man's integrity will not allow his words to be merely for show.

When you enter a new relationship, you are cognizant of the words you use. You don't want to offend or run off the person before they've had a chance to really get to know you. But if you are a person that lacks integrity, pretty soon, your words and actions will start to contradict each other. You may insist that you will call or come by, however, days later the other person still has not had any contact with you. Then when your other "interests" have fallen off, you come up with what you think is a good excuse for not having kept your word to call or come by. In reality what you are saying is "I can't be trusted to keep a promise. Whatever I have to say to keep you in my life, I will say. But don't expect me to really do anything to keep you there." This shows a lack of integrity.

I know you may be thinking, it was only a call or a visit. But how often do the little things that aren't dealt with in a relationship escalate into major issues and conflicts? Sure, no one will get physically hurt by a missed call or visit. But the level of trust that could have been built in the relationship suffers. So, a man of integrity will not only keep his word, he understands that his character suffers when he doesn't. This man will not only be interested in what he can get out of the relationship but willing to contribute to it as well.