Reputation

In our family, we have been talking about reputation.  The older kids are starting to recognize how important having a good reputation is, and how much hurt and pain can come from a ruined reputation.  I loved this verse of scripture that I came upon this morning in my reading.  It is from 1 Timothy 4: 12.

12 Let no man ^adespise thy youth; but be thou an ^bexample of the believers, in word, in ^cconversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in ^dpurity

Last night, I gave a lesson to the children that our reputation can always be good if we watch our conversations and be loving, faithful and pure people.  I spoke of the Golden Rule and how important it is to remember it.  It turned out that Eric (13 year old) was having a misunderstanding with Vanessa (14  years old) amongst their mutual friends which was causing both of them to not behave their best around those friends.  We were able to talk out those misunderstandings and bring peace.

To end with , we came up with ways to improve a reputation once it is scarred or dirtied.  While some stains to reputation take several years to cleanse, the everyday mars to reputation can easily be cleaned with apologies or speaking good about others or by being kind to others' we don't agree with. 

The discussion on protecting reputation can be a tender one with youth and so I made sure the children know that I was speaking a out protecting ours because we want other's to think well of us because we are pure people.  We don't want to look good on the outside only to be filthy on the inside.  We want people to learn to trust us.  We want people to find a good friend in us just like we want to find purity in our friends. 

The night ended well.  I love having older children.