9-12 Project: Honesty

For the next few weeks my Tuesday Traditions post will be replaced with lessons and ideas to help teach your family about the 12 Values from Glenn Beck's 9 Princples & 12 Values List

Week 1 - Honesty

Quote & Scripture:

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

- Thomas Jefferson

Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Story:

I received this story in an email a long time ago and have hung on to in my saved files. I recently came upon it again and thought it fit perfectly in this post. I'm not sure who wrote the story, the history behind it or where it came from, but I love it!

Once upon a time, there was a Selfish Man. He liked everything to be his own. He could not share his belongings with anyone, not even his friends or the poor.

One day, the man lost thirty gold coins. He went to his friend's house and told him how he lost his gold coins. His friend was a kind man.

As his friend's daughter was coming from an errand she found thirty gold coins, when she arrived home, she told her father what she had found. The girl's father told her that the gold coins belong to his friend and he sent for him. When the selfish man arrived, he told him how his daughter had found his thirty gold coins and handed then to him.

After counting the gold coins the man said that ten of them was missing and had been taken by the girl as he had forty gold coins. He further commented that he will recover the remaining amount from him (the girl's father). But the father refused.

The man left the gold coins and went to the court and informed the judge there about what had taken place between him and the girl's father.

The judge sent for the girl and her father, and when they arrived asked the girl how many gold coins she found. She replied thirty gold coins.

The Judge that asked the selfish man how many gold coins he lost and he answered forty gold coins. The judge then told the man that the gold coins did not belong to him because the girl found thirty and not forty as he claimed to have lost and then told the girl to take the gold coins and that if anybody is looking for them he will send for the girl.

The judge told the man that if anybody reports that they have found forty gold coins he will send for him. It was then that the man confessed that he lied and that he lost thirty gold coins but the judge did not listen to him.

Object Lesson:

Have a volunteer in your family stand in the center of the room. Take some yarn and ask them to hold the end of it and then start circling around them and wrapping them in the yarn. Point out that at first the yarn is weak and loose and they could probably break free if they tried, but continue wrapping and wrapping them until they're restricted to the point of not being able to break free. Compare the yarn to lies. At first they don't seem like a problem...easy to break free and move around, but as a person begins to lie, whether big or Small, they will become trapped and bound by their own lies.

Finish of with a tasty Treat!

Thumbprints
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
1 tsp. vanilla
Jam of your choice

Beat cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar in large mixing bowl at medium speed. Add flour and baking soda and mix well. Add chopped nuts and vanilla and chill for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Indent centers and fill each with 1 teaspoon of your favorite jam. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool on wire rack. Use a variety of jams—the cookies will look beautiful on a serving plate.

Hollee Eckman and Heather Higgins, All That Jam, [Salt Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 2003] p. 73.)

Take the time to teach your children about honesty and make sure that you're an example of honesty too, whether you have children or not.

"Teaching children good values of honesty is just like having future good citizens of our country beholding the connotation that children are the hope of every nation. So it is a necessity for every family to teach their children good values most especially the value of honesty. But before introducing such value, it should start first with the practice of the parents as well." - Cheryl Dela Cruz