Guaranteed in a lot of my posts I will address honesty in people. Nothing frustrates me more in life than dishonesty. A lot of teenagers go through phases where for whatever reason, they tell little white lies. I however, was even always terrible at this and found that being honest was a million times easier and a million times more effective (for reasons that go without saying).
Yesterday I was involved in a conversation where honesty was discussed, and for the last 24 hours I've been thinking about it again in great detail.
Without honesty, our lives and the fabric of our society will disintegrate into ugliness and chaos.
Gordon B. Hinckley
How unfortunate is it, that we can know that this is something that is happening. Despite all the wonderful and beautiful things in this world, you don't have to look very far to see that there is clearly ugliness and chaos. What makes dishonesty so appealing (I really am asking this question to anyone who may be reading, because I simply don't understand)? It seems to me that if you lie, you need to work that much harder to remember who you've told what, and therefore you'd get yourself caught in this web of something that is entirely unnecessary and entirely fabricated.
If however we choose honesty, we have very little to consider. We won't ever need to go back and apologize for lying, and we won't ever need to worry about keeping our stories straight. The greatest difficulties I've had with people are through decisions of dishonesty. I've lost many friends because I saw this ridiculous web of lies they were creating and they lost a grasp on any sort of reality. While their lies may have fooled other people, I couldn't be duped and I refuse to go along with that kind of charade.
In a lot of situations it takes courage to choose honesty but, I'd like to think the reward for choosing it is much greater than the alternative.
In words shared by Richard C. Edgley, he shares this short story that illustrates how an example of honesty can influence those around us:
Some 30 years ago, while working in the corporate world, some business associates and I were passing through O’Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois. One of these men had just sold his company for tens of millions of dollars—in other words, he was not poor.
As we were passing a newspaper vending machine, this individual put a quarter in the machine, opened the door to the stack of papers inside the machine, and began dispensing unpaid-for newspapers to each of us. When he handed me a newspaper, I put a quarter in the machine and, trying not to offend but to make a point, jokingly said, “Jim, for 25 cents I can maintain my integrity. A dollar, questionable, but 25 cents—no, not for 25 cents.” A few minutes later we passed the same newspaper vending machine. I noticed that Jim had broken away from our group and was stuffing quarters in the vending machine.
He goes on to say:
There will never be honesty in the business world, in the schools, in the home, or anyplace else until there is honesty in the heart.
The entirety of the article can be read HERE
I hope we can all find it in ourselves to desire honesty in our own hearts. I know our relationships will be stronger, our minds will be more clear and our consciences will be free of guilt.
