Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

As we grow throughout our lives we learn lessons that not only serve us for years to come, but they also serve as benchmarks to our life. With each lesson though, there is a point where one actually puts it to use and that lesson comes to each of us at different times. When we were very small the most important thing for us to learn was the meaning behind the word “no”. As a parent there were days when I felt like I had become a broken record as I spent a great deal of time telling the toddlers “no”. “No, don’t touch that!”, “No that isn’t for little people.”, “No you can’t have a dinosaur.”; were phrases used often until the kids learned what no meant and then turned the tables on us and became “no” machines themselves.

In school we learned the lessons of waiting our turns, raising our hands and meeting deadlines. As important as the knowledge we gained in class were the techniques an ethics that would carry us on into college and finally into the working world. With each thing we master we grow a little more, and yet there are still lessons to be learned. I’ve always felt that the best bosses were the ones that encouraged and yet instilled in you their own knowledge, more of a teacher than a boss and one lesson that I learned many years ago that has stuck with me, came from a boss just like that.

I was dealing with the public in a customer service type of position when I was given advice that I’ve used both in my job, but also in my personal life ever since. That boss once told me, “regardless of what type of news you have for someone, good or bad, just give it to them and be honest about it. The ball is then in their court to decide what to do with that information.” That seems to me to be something that should be taught earlier in life. Imagine if we all just gave people the information they needed without sugarcoating it, and without fear of getting yelled at, how much farther along we would all be.

I think as we get older we find that we care less about what other people think, and at times become more honest, or at least less willing to hide the truth. It has been often said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. With all that has occurred into my life the last few years and after lots of self-reflection, I also found that generally the best thing in all instances is just to tell the truth. Recently this came to head in a situation that I was in where I was confronted and asked about a situation. Oh sure, it would have been easy for me to shrug my shoulders and pretend that I didn’t know a thing or that I didn’t want to be involved, which truth be told I really didn’t, however in order for me to be able to be true to myself and to sleep at night, I did the only thing I could do. I told the truth with what little information I knew, not that it really mattered in the long run.

As we grow up and move through life, those lessons we learn and take hold within us, like being honest, aren’t necessarily the fun ones or the ones that come without repercussions, but in the end brings us into adulthood and is another sign we are following God’s word, which brings us one step closer to the reward we are all working towards.

See you next week, remember…we’re all in this together.