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I'm Telling the Truth

We've been having a lying problem in our house recently. Our son hasn't been telling us the truth about doing his schoolwork. My husband, Tyler, and I have been wracking our brains trying to figure out a way to teach our son the importance of telling the truth. We have tried to explain that he would lose our trust if he lies to us. It hurts us when he lies. Each time we try to explain, I just don't feel in my gut that he is understanding what we are trying to teach him. This whole experience is making me think hard about how did I learn the importance of telling the truth. 

For me it was through experience and my gut feeling. The times where I would just lie or tell a half truth, I would have this weight in my chest and an icky feeling in my stomach. But, when I told the truth I didn't have those feelings. By the time I had gotten to college I considered myself to be an honest person. I was proud that I was choosing to be obedient and choosing to be honest. Then in the year 2013 I had an experience that showed me I wasn't just an honest person, I was a person of integrity. 

I was interviewing for an Office Administrator job at a real estate company. During the interview, the broker said they lost their previous office administrators pretty quickly after they each took the job, because each girl had gotten pregnant. He asked if I would be able to keep this job long term. At the time, Tyler and I were trying to get pregnant, without success. I could have just said, "as far as I know I'll be able to keep it long term" or "I'm not pregnant, so I'll be here for a while." Both answers would have been honest, but I chose to go with my gut and say, "well, my husband and I are trying to get pregnant; but we aren't having any luck. I fully intent to stay at this position for a long time, but I don't know what the future holds." The interview soon ended after that. I left the building thinking, "I shouldn't have told him that. He didn't need to know. I'm not getting the job now." I starting kicking myself and thinking I blew the interview. Then, my thought process changed. "It doesn't matter if I get the job or not. I told the truth." I was confident in my decision to tell the truth. 

I got a phone call the next day. I got the job. I was told I got the job, because of how honest I was in the interview. I was happy I got the job; but even if I didn't, I knew was going to be happy with myself for being honest and having integrity.

Sheri L. Dew said, "President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of integrity this way: 'Men and women of integrity understand intrinsically that theirs is the precious right to hold their heads in the sunlight of truth, unashamed before anyone.'" I felt that "sunlight of truth" that day. I didn't need anyone else to be proud of me, because I was proud of myself. 

Since that time, I've had many other opportunities where I've gone with my gut and told the truth, no matter what was going to happen. I knew I would have a hard time living my life with that weight in my chest and that icky feeling in my stomach. In my dealings with others in life I think to myself (and on occasion have said this to someone) "I am telling the truth. I don't need you to believe me, but I am telling the truth." I could stand the judgmental eyes and opinions of others and not be pushed to do something I'm know is not right. I don't have to live with them. I do have to live with myself. I don't answer to them, but I do have to answer to my God. 

Sheri L. Dew also said, "Integrity is the foundational virtue upon which all other virtues are dependent. It is the first rung on the character ladder. Where there is integrity, other virtues will follow. Where there is not integrity, other virtues have no chance of developing."

I'm still not sure how I'm going to explain all of this to my son, but I know if I continue to live a life with integrity it will be a light to him. I hope when he is faced with those moments of choosing to tell the truth, that he will be able to recognize what it feels like to lie and I pray he will choose to go with telling the truth. Telling the truth will get him farther in life than lying ever would. 

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