Would we lie to you? It’s National Honesty Day!

On the last sale of the day, a woman came into the general store and asked for a half-pound of tea. The young clerk weighed out the tea and handed the parcel to the woman.

The next morning, in preparing to open the store, the clerk discovered a four-ounce weight on the scale. Instantly he remembered using this same scale while selling the woman her tea. She had been shorted by four ounces! The young man quickly weighed out the balance of the half-pound of tea, closed up the store, and delivered it to his customer.

That clerk later became the 16^th President of the United States and was known as, “Honest Abe.” (In February we talked about him and his reputation.)

Honesty is a character trait that we admire in others. An honest person is sincere, truthful, trustworthy, honorable, fair, and genuine. We know we can trust honest friends with our deepest secrets. We know we can depend upon them to show up when they say they will. We know that whatever they say, we can count on them to keep their word. We all want those kinds of friends. We should also be those kinds of friends.

Do you know who else values honesty? God does! In fact, he includes honestly in his top ten rules for living (otherwise known as the Ten Commandments). Number 9 says, “Do not testify falsely against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). In other words, tell the truth! Be honest! In Leviticus, when Moses gave the people God’s rules for living holy and pure lives, he said, “Do not steal. Do not cheat one another. Do not lie” (Leviticus 19:11). And Proverbs 11:1 says, “The Lord hates cheating, but he delights in honesty.”

If God delights in honesty, shouldn’t we?

It is better to be poor and honest than to be a fool and dishonest (Proverbs 19:1).

To Do

To celebrate National Honesty Day, thank someone for being honest to you. And make a commitment to telling the truth today.

Also on this day . . .

1789—George Washington took office as the first elected U.S. president.

1803—The United States bought Louisiana from France.

1904—The ice cream cone made its debut.

1988—The largest banana split ever, at 4.55 miles long, was made in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.