Monday, December 05, 2005
Long day at school... *tired* thought i shall just share a story which i read in my daily devotions book. Kind of interesting. Well, here's how the story goes.
The following story is told about Abraham Lincoln when he was a young man, before he became known as “Honest Abe.” Abe was working in a store as a clerk. One day a woman came in and bought a few items. Abe jotted down the woman's charges on a scrap of paper, totaled them for her, and then accepted her payment. After she had left the store, though, Abe started wondering whether he had accurately added up the woman's purchases. When he added the numbers again, he found out he had charged her too much. It was only a few cents, but Abe felt bad about his mistake. So, at the end of the day, after closing the store, Abe walked the distance (somewhere between two and three miles) to the woman's house to return the money he had overcharged her. Another time, he had weighed a half-pound of tea for a woman, only to discover the next day that there had been an extra four-ounce weight on the scale. He had given her less than a half-pound. As he had done with the few cents, Abe corrected the error by weighing out the missing quantity and delivering it to the woman. It’s not hard to imagine how Lincoln came to be called "Honest Abe." After all, in those two instances (and in many others) he went to a lot of trouble to make sure he didn't cheat anyone and didn't take anything that belonged to him. He didn't try to excuse his mistakes. He didn't try to shrug them off, saying, "Ah, I didn't mean to overcharge the lady." He didn't try to say that taking that extra money would be okay. Instead, he made sure that his behavior was as honest as he could make it. That's exactly how God wants us to act, too. He doesn't want us to excuse dishonesty or shrug it off. He doesn’t want us to say, "Well, in my case it wouldn’t be dishonest," or "in this case it wouldn’t be so bad." No, he wants us to remember that he has already told us what is right and what is wrong. . . and he has made it clear that honesty is right, and dishonesty is wrong. Now for my reflections, is dishonesty part and parcel of being human? Is white lie considered being dishonest? I don't know. Think about this, if being honest would hurt someone, is it better to be dishonest? Urgh... this is so complex! Alright that's all for today, my energy's kinda drained away already. Well, just a few things to thank God for. Thanks for giving me the strength to go through such a hectic day, thanks for seeing me through my icp quiz(although i feel it's a disaster) and last but not least thanks for guiding me though my meeting skills test. All I want to say is a gazillion thanks for always being there for me. I believe, just walk each day with a step of faith and all will be well and good. It's through trials and tribulations that make me a stronger person in Christ.
