Does Honesty and Integrity Matter in Relationships and in Marriage

Quick vote, what do you think you want most in a relationship?  Someone you can trust?  Someone who has absolute integrity?  Or something else?  And if it is something else, what else it it?

This week I was all set to do a shout out on some Betty Grable movies.  But as I was watching through some of her movies, I stumbled across the film A Yank in the R.A.F.  And it had a  theme that I thought was important enough that I wanted to discuss it. 

In the film A Yank in the R.A.F.  two people are in love with the same girl.  One is dishonest, and doesn't follow rules or instructions or follow through on assignments and in not a gentleman.  And one is just the opposite.  Which would you chose? 

A Yank in the R.A.F. 1941 - Trailer

I think it's super important to teach our children and ourselves what attributes in a relationship might lead to happiness.  And how important honesty and integrity are in a relationship.

Then I started thinking of other films that I had seen that also have that same conflict of choosing to love someone who is honest or dishonest, someone who has integrity or someone who does not. 

Here are the films I remember watching in the past with a stark contrast between a person with integrity and a person without   I'm hoping that you can add to the list.   While most of the films that we spotlight are completely family friendly, this post is much different.  I would not suggest just letting your children watch any of these film without your guidance.  And I would highly suggest you watching all of these films first so you can weigh for yourself the value of what it teaches verses the level of vice in the film

Kitty Foyle 1941 - Trailer

In Kitty Foyle a woman has 2 men who love her.  Again one is full of integrity, one is not.

Pride and Prejudice 2005 - Trailer

We love this movie because it shows how easy it is to misjudge a person if you judge only by first impressions.

Daniel Deronda 2002 - Trailer

In Daniel Deronda a man of integrity chooses who to marry.  And a woman is warned about a man who doesn't have integrity and chooses to marry him or not.

La Bamba 1987 - Trailer

This has many very heavy adult themes, please watch it first and weigh it's teaching values with your values.  In La Bamba you see a stark contrast of a male with integrity and a male with no or very little integrity.

Frozen 2013 - Trailer

We include Frozen with this list of movies because it points how easy it is to be mislead on the level of someone's honesty and integrity because we all want to assume the best in people.

In some of the films above the main girl in the story chooses the person with high intercity and in some of the films above the main girl in the story chooses the person with low or no integrity.  But I think that no matter what the choice we can speculate on what will happen in that character's life and which choice may have made them more happy.  So we think all have teaching value.

We want to act with integrity.  We want to be able to trust those we love, and being honest and having integrity is the only way to built that trust.  We hope that by watching these films it will open the discussion of how important honesty and integrity is.