Honesty
March 21, 2004
Dear Friends,
Teddy Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, was at one time a rancher. One day, while out riding the plains, he found an unbranded steer. The rule of the day was that the animal belonged to the person who owned the land. At the time, Mr. Roosevelt was on his neighbors property, not his own. As they prepared to brand the animal, one of Teddy’s cowboys began to apply the Roosevelt brand rather than that of the neighbor. Teddy corrected the cowboy and told him to apply his neighbor’s brand. The cowboy said “I always put on the boss’s brand.” With that, Teddy fired his employee on the spot and remarked “A man who will steal for me will steal from me.” (1)
Honesty is the basis for most relationships as you cannot have a good relationship with someone who you suspect will steal from you or lie to you at the next available opportunity. As parents we have told our children over and over that trust is a vital aspect in our parent-child relationship. If we know that they will always be honest with us, they will be given a lot more latitude in their activities than if we feel we have to check behind them. So far it has worked very well.
Best selling author, Stephen Covey, in one of his seminars related a story about a man who approached him at a conference where he was speaking on the subject of trust. He was concerned that his wife was always checking up on him and always wanted to know what he was doing. He didn’t understand why she didn’t trust him. Only later did it come out that this was his second wife which he met at a conference just like this one while married to his first wife.
Honesty is one of the fundamental attributes to our relationship with God. God tells us exactly how he feels about honesty in Proverbs 6:16-19 when we are told, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Two out of seven things that the Lord hates revolve around lying and most, if not all, are related to the wider concept of honesty. We cannot have a good relationship with our Creator if we are constantly involved in something that He hates.
One of the reasons that God hates lying so much is that it is completely foreign to His nature. It is so foreign, in fact, that we are told God cannot do it Himself. (see Titus 1:2) If lying is something God cannot do, why would we want any part of it?
It is too bad that these days lying and dishonesty are so much a part of our nature. The BBC conducted a survey with 5,000 women in 2001 and found 94% confessed to lying with an amazing 48% doing so on a daily basis. Of those surveyed, 84% said they could lie with a clear conscience. Before we get too smug at the prevarication of our English friends, it is reported in USA Today that “Studies have shown that the average American tells three or four lies a day. In other words, we lie about as often as we eat.” (2)
We will pick up here, Lord willing, next week.
Have a great week!
(1) The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, p. 476
(2) USA Today, Oct. 16-18, 1998
