Honesty is a great attribute of life. How often is it practiced in today’s society?
Recently the Kremlin posted a video showing Russian President Vladimir Putin catching a monster 46-pound pike while vacationing in Siberia? One Russian writer quickly said, “I wonder what the name is of the diver who put it on his hook?”
When we have the National Bass Tournament here in Montgomery, they always have a referee on each boat to be sure that the fishermen are honest. When they have the National Crappie Tournament here in the River Region, there are too many boats to have a referee for each boat. This meant that fishermen had to take a lie detector test before turning in their catch. No fish stories – just honesty! At the Winni Derby fishing tournament on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee they announced that the winner of the Grand Prize Salmon Division would have to take a lie detector test before receiving the award.
I heard a cute story about four college buddies who elected to go to a party rather than study for an exam. They stayed out so late that they missed the exam.
They knew they had to come up with some kind of story for the professor. They decided to tell him that they went out of town to help a friend and on the way back they had a flat tire. They didn’t have a spare tire, so this made them miss the exam. They figured they were smart enough to get the best of the professor.
The professor told them that they could take the exam. They studied a lot. When they came to take the exam the professor immediately put them in separate rooms to take the exam.
There was one simple easy problem on the first page that counted just 5 points. They felt very good knowing that they had gotten away with their dishonesty. But when they turned to the second page they saw that the second question was worth 95 points and the question was simply “Which tire”?
We are living in a day and age where trust is being tested. It was interesting to note that in 2013 Judge Judy, the TV Judge, received a higher trust level in a poll of one thousand Americans than any other jurists, including the nine justices of the U. S. Supreme Court!
We have recently experienced the fact that the U. S. has obviously been intercepting communications from other governments – many of them our allies. The recent revelations about the U.S. national security agents online surveillance program raised this distrust. Russia will try to outsmart our NSA. The Russian Secret Service has ordered dozens of electric typewriters to use to have more security in communications!
A recent survey by The Wall Street Journal showed that most people don’t enjoy their work because they don’t trust their “bosses.” In suggesting the most desired traits in a boss, the top two were “integrity and honesty.”
“Good people will be guided by honesty; dishonesty destroys treacherous people.” (Proverbs 11:3 NLT) “My integrity and honesty protect me.” (Psalm 25:21 NLT) “Lord, You are searching for honesty.” (Jeremiah 5:3 NLT) “God cares about honesty in the workplace; your business is His business.” Proverbs 16:11 MSG)
Honesty is the best (only) policy.
