What are you looking for in a partner: attractiveness, sense of humor, chemistry?
Is this what we should be chasing? Sure, these traits look good on paper, but life gets routine. Kids need attention, and bills are piling up. The car won't start. Are you laughing now?
Life is messy and hard, amazing and crazy, and through it all, you deserve someone who has integrity above anything else.
Integrity is a measure of how someone behaves when no one is looking.
It is helping a stranger cross the road or honoring commitments when they would instead do something else. It is living a life of ethics and value to others and the world around them.
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.—Bob Marley
Integrity reveals itself in other character traits.
Honesty
Respect
Responsibility
A person who regularly demonstrates integrity increases their value in a relationship.
Upon meeting my now-husband, I realized he has maintained close relationships with people for decades. He despises letting others down and is the first to volunteer to help someone. He crawls under cars to rescue baby ducks and will buy a stranger a meal.
He is trustworthy and moral, and these exceptional traits are evident in our relationship because of his integrity. He doesn't do things for glory but because he cares about me and others above himself.