Why is honesty important in a friendship? Friendship plays a crucial role in everyone’s lives and there’s no point in them being built on lies.
Friends can be described as our outer family whose role is to defend us in times of need.
It’s like you have a small army, ready to attack anyone who doesn’t respect you.
Most of us learn from a young age that having friends is important in life.
They contribute to developing trust and if there’s no honesty, then friendship as such has no significance or meaning.
So, why is honesty important in a friendship? Well, as someone wise once said:
“Being honest may not get you many friends, but it will always get you the right ones.”
Essentially, friendship is a reflection of ourselves. They show who we are to others.
Sometimes it’s hard to put into perspective how significant it is to have an honest friend in life.
There’s always that one true friend who has a significant impact on you.
Most of us have heard that if you don’t have an honest friend in your life, then your life is not accomplished and that’s true.
You can surround yourself with hundreds of people, but you can’t say that every one of them is your friend.
So, how can we say that someone outside of our family circle is like a brother or sister to us?
Well, if you think about it, those honest and true friends completely care and are devoted to us without exception.
They don’t expect anything in return other than to cherish and show respect to each other.
So, that’s why you’re truly blessed if you can say that you have a true friend by your side.
Is honesty important in a friendship?
If you want your relationships to be deep and meaningful, then you have to be honest with each other.
Honesty is a part of the foundation of a healthy and long friendship.
All of us appreciate it when someone is honest and doesn’t lie to us, and while there may be times when you have to cloud the truth in certain situations, honesty is generally the best policy.
Honesty is a powerful tool that can help you build, empower, and grow any kind of relationship.
On the other hand, being dishonest and lying can certainly destroy your friendship with someone.
You’ll definitely encounter friends who live by the motto ‘ignorance is bliss’, but those aren’t your true friends.
They tell you little white lies to spare your feelings.
Only true friends will know that honesty is the best policy.
You don’t want someone in your life who deceives you and tells you a sugar-coated version of the facts.
The chances are you would like to have an honest, blunt friend who cares how you feel, but at the same time will tell it as they see it.
Nowadays, we have this trend where people are afraid to say the truth because they want to be likable.
They have a hard time speaking up to their friends because they want to feel accepted by society.
However, little do they know, the truth will always come out.
You can’t pretend to be someone you’re not, because there’ll be a time where you’ll be exposed.
That’s why honesty is the best policy. It’s always better to be brutally honest than kissed with a lie and having a friend who knows that can be a real life-saver.
Why should you waste your time on people who only tell you lies or partial truths?
It’s better to have that one candidly honest friend than dozens of those who tell you white lies.
So, why is honesty important in a friendship?
1. A healthy and strong friendship is based on honesty
We form friendships from an early age and as time passes, we meet different people.
Among them, only a few will remain with us for a long time.
That’s why our idea of friendship changes over time. People will come and go from your life, but very few of them will remain.
Those who remain will be honest with you at all costs and you believe them with your heart and soul.
Those friendships from your early childhood only survive if honesty stays among them.
Those friends help you grow as you learn valuable life lessons from them.
You learn from each other and your bond with them only gets stronger if you base your friendships on honesty.
For you to have a healthy and mature friendship, you should always be honest with your friend, no matter how hard it may be to hear the truth.
2. It helps you build trust
One of the essential things for a healthy friendship is trust, and you can only build it by being honest with each other.
It’ll also strengthen your bond and your friendship will certainly last longer.
From an early age, we experience betrayal.
Maybe you had a friend who betrayed you on the playground and you decided not to hang out with them anymore.
Trust is an important part of any relationship, especially a friendship, because if there’s no trust then it won’t last long.
We only learn to trust each other if we’re being honest.
If they’re honest with us, we don’t have to keep guessing what the other person is thinking.
We don’t question their intentions, nor do we think they’re hiding any secrets if they’re honest with us.
Naturally, such a relationship lasts a long time because we are at ease knowing the other person cares enough for us to tell us the truth and nothing else.
Life is too short to waste it on people who aren’t honest because those people don’t truly care about us.
While sometimes it might be hard to hear the truth, we have to appreciate it because the other person who is being honest with us is actually being vulnerable.
It means they trust you enough to confide in you.
They’re taking a chance you won’t tell anyone else about it or they’re being vulnerable telling you something you may not like.
These people understand the heaviness the truth holds and how it can potentially hurt the relationship.
Nevertheless, they care about you and want a friendship that is based on honesty rather than plain lies.
3. You never have to guess how they’re feeling or what they’re thinking about something
You know, people can’t read minds so being honest doesn’t just mean that you’re telling the truth about some information, but you’re also telling the truth about how you feel or what you think about a certain matter.
Maybe you were hurt by something they did, but how will they know they hurt you if you don’t tell them the honest truth?
If you hide your feelings and you hide the truth from your friend, then you strip them of the opportunity to do something about the problem, and by doing that, your relationship won’t continue to grow.
The other side might also feel hurt once they realize you were upset with them but didn’t say anything, or if they know you weren’t being honest about how you felt before.
Eventually, all of these things will prevent your friendship from growing and it’ll certainly damage it.
However, if you’re honest about your feelings, then this friend can only benefit from that.
Your feelings will be healed, you’ll have solved the problem, and most importantly, you’re going to renew trust in each other again.
4. Honesty helps us grow
So, why is honesty important in a friendship? Well, because you’ll grow as a person when you speak the truth and nothing else.
When you’re honest then you’re the only one accountable for your own behavior.
Honesty can challenge and encourage you to be a better human being.
Essentially, you become a person who thinks about your own choices and how they can prove to be beneficial for your friendship or how they can hurt it.
You think about how the other person would feel if you didn’t tell them the truth, and as a result of that, you grow as an individual.
You care for them enough to tell them the truth because you know lying would only harm your friendship.
5. There’s always room for improvement
Being honest doesn’t always mean you’re giving your friends compliments about how gorgeous they are or when they pass an exam, and so on.
We should also be honest with and true to our friends about the things they’re not good at, or any things that we don’t like about them.
Sometimes it’s better to hear the bitter truth because being lied to about a particular thing can bring more harm than telling the truth.
So, if you’re friend isn’t good at playing the piano, tell them.
It’s better they hear it from you than from someone who would lie to them and would like to see them be embarrassed.
Maybe a particular outfit looks ridiculous on your friend and you decide not to tell them because you don’t want to hurt their feelings.
Why would lying about something like that do them any good? It wouldn’t.
That’s why it’s always good to be honest with your friend, no matter what. You have to be if you want to keep your friendship alive.
Life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows.
There’s always room for improvement in something and that’s why it’s better to be honest than to lie about anything.
6. People are usually more hurt when they’re lied to about something than by the truth itself
Sometimes people lie because they’re afraid the truth might get them in trouble or cause another pain.
However, in most cases, the truth may be less painful when it’s delivered honestly than when it’s wrapped in a box of lies.
When you know you’re lying to your friend, that can cause more harm than telling them the simple truth.
The other person will eventually find out and they will feel betrayed as well as hurt because you didn’t tell them the truth in the first place.
Your friendship will certainly take a hit when you’re not being honest with each other but being honest will improve the relationship and save you from having to live a lie.
Living a lie is hard work. You’re constantly in fear that the other person might find out the truth and eventually, it will get out of control.
That means not being yourself and enjoying the friendship, and that isn’t comfortable for anyone.
On the other hand, telling the truth might bring discomfort at first, but once the problem has been solved, the relationship is strengthened and trust is built.
7. Honesty teaches us many valuable lessons
If you think about it, honesty teaches us many life lessons and one of them is how to interact with people and choosing your words wisely.
How did you feel when a little kid said something with an honest heart and it came out as an insult?
Did you feel offended or is it that you didn’t care because you know it was said honestly?
This can be applied to friendships as well.
Our genuine friends aren’t trying to be mean, but maybe they tell the truth without thinking about how their words are going to affect us.
That’s why it’s important to practice honesty because the more you learn how to be honest by choosing your words wisely, the more you grow as a person.
8. Honesty is inspirational and motivational
Every one of us desires to be successful at something and we all struggle to get ahead.
Our friends being honest with us helps to make progress in our life, however.
In moments when everything comes crashing down and we don’t seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel, that one true friendship can be a real life-saver.
By telling us the necessary truth, they can provide us with much-needed inspiration and motivation to keep fighting to achieve our dreams and goals.
Honesty is always the best medicine, no matter how bitter it can be to hear it.
But honest friends will always push you to achieve your goals because they truly care about you.
9. It can be liberating
Honesty gives us freedom.
When you know your friendship is based on honesty, then you have the freedom to be yourself and you don’t have to worry about what the other person might think of you.
You don’t have to work hard to be accepted or appreciated for who you are because you’re always honest with each other and they’ll tell you if they don’t like something about you.
Because you care for each other, you talk about everything and you share everything.
You don’t have to secretly wonder whether your friend is annoyed or frustrated about something you’ve done because you know they care enough to be honest and they will tell you how they feel about you.
10. Honesty boosts self-confidence
Tell me how many times you weren’t sure you made the right decision and then your friend gave you the much-needed push to just go for it?
Sometimes we don’t believe that the decision we made was the right one.
However, sometimes all you need is a helping hand and motivation from your friend.
Your true friend won’t ever let you down. If your friendship is based on honesty, then they’ll remain with you through thick and thin.
As a result, you become more confident in your decisions and gain self-respect.
You reach that maximum level of confidence to tackle the problems at hand because of the honesty you share for each other.
So, how do you build honesty in a friendship and how do you recover from dishonesty?
You should always start with small steps when you want to build honesty in a friendship.
Remember, it doesn’t come overnight, but it certainly can break with just one simple lie.
The first thing you should do is remove any thoughts that hold you back from opening up.
You should never think that your opinion would be a burden to your friend and don’t think that one little argument will end your friendship.
If the friendship is real then it will survive even the toughest arguments.
Nevertheless, you have to recognize the thoughts that keep you from connecting with your friends.
Your voice should be heard and don’t be afraid to let everyone know what you think about a certain matter.
Honesty doesn’t necessarily create conflict. It can create healthy arguments that can only strengthen your bond.
The next thing you should do is start opening up about small things.
Don’t just tell your friend your whole life story, but start with the small things first.
As time passes, you can gradually move on from making plans at the weekend to more personal secrets and experiences.
That will allow you to build trust and closeness more naturally and it won’t feel like it’s being forced.
By doing that, you actually create a foundation to fall back on when you have the need to share something rather personal with your friend, like a mistake you made or something that nobody knows except you.
However, it’s important to keep in mind to find a balance between what you share with them and what they share with you.
That’s the next step in building an honest friendship.
You should always give your friend the space to share their own struggles.
Let them know you’re willing to listen to whatever the problem might be when they feel they’re ready to share their problems with you.
An empathetic approach is far more beneficial than a forceful one. But remember, always respect each other’s boundaries.
Honesty really brings two people together when it’s voluntary and not forced.
Maybe your friend isn’t ready to open up about things that could potentially bring you closer together, but the time will come, trust me.
You just have to be patient and respect each other’s boundaries.
So, what if you have experienced dishonesty in your friendship? Can friends repair a friendship when one feels betrayed?
Yes, it’s quite possible, but it requires both people to be equally engaged in the process of repairing their friendship.
First, you have to re-establish the communication because silence only adds salt to the wound and you become more distant.
You can always send your friend a text message to tell them that you miss them and would like to talk.
Then you should acknowledge that you hurt each other.
Accept the fact that both of you caused damage to your friendship and freely express your disappointment and anger.
Don’t make any excuses and say what you have on your mind.
Eventually, you have to forgive and forget. If you want your friendship to last, don’t hold any grudges against each other.
Everyone deserves a second chance. Forgiving your friend won’t just benefit your friendship but also your mental health.
Now that we’ve covered why honesty is important between friends, what are some other requirements for a strong and long-lasting friendship?
Well, in addition to trust and honesty, there should be always equality in a friendship.
It’s an important ingredient that often gets overlooked when one friend tries to undermine the other and starts controlling your friendship.
The key to a healthy friendship is that both friends should be able to make decisions together and compromise without being shut down.
For example, one friend can be naturally assertive and wants to dominate all the decision-making, while the other friend is quite shy.
In that case, the shy friend should challenge themselves to speak up without being afraid that their decision might be overruled.
Having empathy and compassion for each other is another key ingredient for a healthy and successful friendship.
Friends should always be there for each other no matter what.
Showing empathy and compassion is a requirement for a healthy friendship because you need to know that your friend has your back in every situation.
Also, I would like to mention independence as another requirement for a healthy and strong friendship.
Why? Because everyone needs their own personal space.
No matter how close you think you are with your friend, there comes a point in time when you just want to be alone and enjoy your ‘me time’.
It’s never healthy to always need the company of your friend or partner and to be clingy or needy.
You have to know that it’s okay to have other friends and hobbies besides each other. Your world doesn’t have to revolve around your best friend.
Remember, the best relationships are the ones that are honest.
It may be difficult to talk about certain things and have awkward confrontations, but if you want to have a strong and long-lasting friendship, honesty is the key ingredient to achieving it.
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