Before I posted the quiz blog the other day and after I’d answered the questions myself, I prevailed on my dear husband to be guinea pig and answer the questions. Unbeknown to him at the time, I’d also answered how I thought he would answer. All except one were right. Good to know that after all our years of marriage there’s still a little surprise. His scores were mostly As, with a few C and B variations thrown in.
One of the things I admire about him is the ease with which he can refuse an invitation without feeling a need to make excuses. I can’t do that. So, guess who sometimes gets that job when it is somewhere we don’t want to go?
Some answers we definitely agreed on. One was question 6, about the sports carnival and the child doesn’t want to go. This was one we came up against a bit. As a child I hated sport carnivals. If you’re not the sporty type they can be a bore and time, a waste of time. If our children didn’t want to go, we were happy for them to stay home rather than them spending a day at a sports carnival they didn’t want to be at.
I could have written a note claiming sickness, as I knew many other parents did and as my mother did when I was a child. I didn’t. I wrote a note explaining that I knew they were not at the carnival. They were absent with my permission .We used the time to do something else, play Scrabble, read, visit an art gallery, or the beach etc. Invariably our children were marked down with an unexplained absence. Since they never missed too many days of school this wasn’t too much of a problem.
Another time our son’s school decided to hold a Halloween day where the children were required to dress up as witches. Neither of us wanted our son to participate and dress as a witch. I know some other Christians have no problem with Halloween but we feel strongly against it. After prayer, I wrote a note explaining why our child would not be attending. Again he was marked absent without explanation, because he wasn’t sick.
Honesty presents a problem for some people. Often I’ve told the truth only to find people react oddly. It’s like they’d rather I lied and made up excuses. I admit sometimes I have, because it’s been easier and it saved people’s feelings being hurt.But then I’ve found guilt hard to deal with.
God calls us to live honestly and not lie to each other, Colossians 3:9. Jesus reminds us that the devil is a liar and ‘there is no truth in him,’ John 8:44. Do we really want to be like him by telling lies, even if they are what people deem as white lies? What do you think – is truth always the best option no matter what the cost?
Bible verses from The New American Standard Version
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How did you score on the honesty quiz?