Honesty is an important virtue. This brief inspirational thought can be used as a Scoutmaster minute to remind Scouts that it is better to be honest from the start than to try to cover our mistakes by shading the truth.
This minute starts with a quote from Mark Twain.
Scoutmaster Minute – Honesty
Mark Twain once said “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” And Abraham Lincoln made a similar remark, saying “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.”
Sometimes when we do something wrong or make a mistake, we are tempted to cover it up with a lie. The problem is, we must then remember the lie to continue the cover up. And then we might have to tell additional lies to support the original dishonesty. So being truthful is not only the right thing to do. In the end, it is just plain easier.
How many times to we hear of politicians covering something up, and then getting in more trouble when their dishonesty is discovered than they would have for the original mistake? In the end, they probably wish they had just told the truth from the start.
Honesty is the best policy. Everybody gets to make mistakes. Remember that nobody expects you to be perfect. I’ll forgive your mistakes and I hope you will forgive mine. And in the end, we will all respect each other for telling the truth.
