Basic HTML Version
HONESTY
(Continued from page 14)
telling moral stories
in teaching
children. There is, after all, some–
thing to be said for giving children
right role models to look to. Such
examples have a positive impact on
impressionable young minds.
•
Teach children to control frus–
tration and not ro expect instant
gratification of every desire.
Such
an expectation encourages manipu–
lative lying.
Comlng-A World Full
of Truth
The magazine you are
reading is called
The Plain
Truth.
lt is dedicated to
g tvtng yo u a clear,
straightforward under–
standing of world affairs,
happy family relation–
ships, social issues and
religious questions. lt is
dedicated, as its title
implies, to fostering truth.
Honesty and other pos–
itive traits of moral devel–
opment are all part of
character,
an indispens–
able factor in successful
living, whether on a per–
sonal, national or interna–
tional leve!.
cotton belongs to the farmer. Jt is
enough that you look at it and feel
it." My brother and l learned some–
thing more important than what
cotton looks and feels like.
When 1 showed an interest in
reading, my parents pointed me to
biographies of g reat people of the
past. 1 remember being sti rred by
stories of men like Abraham Lin–
coln, George Washington and Win–
ston Churchill. General Douglas
MacArthur said he would return
and did. Every people has its heroic
figures who are symbols of honesty
J can remember severa! times
in
my life when my parents, fr iends,
even people 1 hardly knew were
frank with me about personal faults
1 had. It didn't feel good at the time,
but 1 learned to be glad when they
told me, because then 1 could cor–
rect the fault. Thei r honesty paíd off
and 1 appreciated it.
My parents did one other impor–
tant thing: They taught me the Ten
Commandments, the ninth of which
says: "You shall not bear false wit–
ness against your neighbor" (Ex.
20:16, Revised Authorized Yer-
sion). 1 remember being
made to copy the Ten
Commandments from the
Bible and hang them in
our kitchen so we could all
see them every day. 1 had
the Ten Commandments
memorized
and knew
that they worked
before 1
grew up and read the
writings of all the people
who said they didn't–
that they weren't in force
anymore.
The
Worldwide
Me? 1 was blessed to be
taught honesty by a com–
bination of all these fac–
tors-parental training,
Children in general today do not grow
up hearing about
Church of God publishes
an attractive booklet ex–
plaining just what those
Ten Commandments are
and how they can work to
make your life happier
and more prosperous, too.
If you would like a copy,
just write us at the
address nearest you and
ask for
The Ten Com–
mandments.
positive peer influence and
good role models- plus
one other. 1 haven' t always
been perfectly honest-
none of us have- but then,
1 don ' t claim to have any
excuse.
1 remember my parents telling the
truth even to the point of blunt
frankness, sometimes even to their
own hurt.
1remember, when my brother and
1were small boys, riding through the
cotton fields of southern Missouri
with our parents. We boys had been
born and reared in the city of St.
Louis and had not seen cotton grow–
ing. The suggestion carne up that it
would be easy to stop the car, go out
into the field, and pick sorne cotton
to see what it looked and felt like.
"No," 1 remember my mother
saying. "That would be stealing. The
June
1984
"Honest Abe" Lincoln, but
about government
scandals and other unrighted
injustices.
and truthfulness. Their biographies
should be read.
1 remember going into grocery
stores in small towns and seeing
blank checks from banks available
at the checkout stands. You could
write a check on your account and
the storekeeper would take your
word that you had enough money in
your account to cover the check–
that you even had an account , for
that matter. 1 remember wondering
how the storekeepers could trust
people like that. The answer, at least
to me, was clear:
because honest
peop/e didn 't /ie.
Think what it would be
like if everyone in the
world told the truth all
the time! Think of the
problems that would be
solved- the heartaches that would
be prevented.
Honesty will be the
only
policy
when God's kingdom is set up on
earth, and the coming of that king–
dom is just ahead of us now. The
Bible tells us that at that time,
"Truth shall spring out of the
earth" (Ps. 85:11 ). Outside that
kingdom-in the lake of fire!-will
be "whoever !oves and practices a
lie" (Rev. 22:15, 21:8, RAY).
Why not practice the happiness–
producing way of honesty in your
own life-and teach it to your chil–
dren- now? o
3 1