Have you ever been in a situation where you're required to be honest? I'm sure it's never an easy choice to make, but in many situations it is better to be cruel in order to be kind(er).
Abraham Lincoln, during his boyhood, helped to run a country provision store. Here's a condensed version of the story, taken from here.
Why Lincoln Was Called 'Honest Abe'
by: Noah Brooks, Good Stories for Great Holidays
In managing the country store, as in everything that he undertook for others, Lincoln did his very best. He was honest, civil, ready to do anything that should encourage customers to come to the place, full of pleasantries, patient, and alert.
On one occasion, finding late at night, when he counted over his cash, that he had taken a few cents from a customer more than was due, he closed the store, and walked a long distance to make good the deficiency.
At another time, discovering on the scales in the morning a weight with which he had weighed out a package of tea for a woman the night before, he saw that he had given her too little for her money. He weighed out what was due, and carried it to her, much to the surprise of the woman, who had not known that she was short in the amount of her purchase.
Seeing the examples set by Honest Abe, reminds me that the price to pay for honesty is never too great. Of course, there are conditional terms to be considered in being honest. Being brutally honest when the intended receipient can't take it would be a surefire way of starting more conflicts.
But having gone through the school of hard knocks (but yet to graduate from there), i believe that honesty is still the best policy in life to follow. Honesty builds and grows character, and you can only be a better person by having strong principles to live by.
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