President's Day FHE

Despite never planning on it, I have a bachelor's degree in Political Science.  During the fall of my sophomore year of college I decided I wanted to major in journalism.  I had always loved to write and was pretty fascinated with the media.  It felt like the perfect field for me.  As I reviewed the list of requirements for my degree, I saw that I was required to take a certain number of classes in allied fields.  These were, for the most part, other social sciences.  I think it's because they'd like journalists to be somewhat knowledgeable about the world that they are reporting about.  Made total sense to me!  In a nut shell, I figured if I was going to have to take a bunch of classes in another field, I may as well fulfill all those major requirements as well.  So, Political Science seemed like a good field to study!  Why not, right?  

I was absolutely in love with my American Government class -- even though my political views stood in pretty stark contrast to my instructor's.  I once made a comment in class that had her so upset I thought her head was going to pop right off her shoulders.  We did, however, have one major thing in common... complete pride in our country.   I remember her telling us one day that even though she wasn't a fan of our current president, if he walked in the room she would immediately jump to her feet and show the utmost respect for him.  I admired her for that.  As I worked on my degree, I did my best to take as few international relations classes as possible.  Blah.  But I came to have this great love for the United States and our political system.  No, the United States government is not perfect.  Shocking, right?  But there are so many things I love about it.  I love the system of checks and balances, I love that we get to vote, I love that the constitution can be changed, I love that we have systems to kick corrupt people out of office.  I am amazed at the insight our Founding Fathers had as they put together the constitution.  I truly believe they were inspired and led by God.  I think if I could invite any historical figure to dinner, to have an evening to hear their stories and pick their brain, it would be George Washington.  Or maybe his wife.  She had to have been pretty great as well.  

So, for Family Home Evening tonight we are going to celebrate two of the great Presidents our country has had... George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  I'm going to focus on their HONESTY.  Here are a couple stories I'm going to share with my kids...

The Cherry Tree

By M.L. Weems

When George [Washington] was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was extremely fond.  He went about chopping everything that came his way.

One day, as he wandered about the garden amusing himself by hacking his mother's pea sticks, he found a beautiful, young English cherry tree, of which his father was most proud.  He tried the edge of his hatchet on the trunk of the tree and barked it so that it died.

Some time after this, his father discovered what had happened to his favorite tree.  He came into the house in great anger, and demanded to know who the mischievous person was who had cut away the bark.  Nobody could tell him anything about it.

Just then George, with his little hatchet, came into the room.

"George," said his father, "do you know who has killed my beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden?  I would not have taken five guineas for it!"

This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment George was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried:

"I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie!  I did cut it with my little hatchet."

The anger died out of his father's face, and taking the boy tenderly in his arms, he said:

"My son, that you should not be afraid to tell the truth is more to me than a thousand trees!  Yes - though they were blossomed with silver and had leaves of the purest gold!"

Why Lincoln Was Called "Honest Abe"

Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln

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.

....

Then we'll talk about why it's important to be honest and I'll ask them for times in their lives when they are honest.  My kids really love to play Go Fish right now.  This is a game where they can choose to lie about whether or not they actually have the card the other players ask them for.  I'm going to point this out to them and then we'll play the game!

There are probably other exciting games that would work for this but given the ages of my kids (and the fact that I'm putting this together last minute) I decided to go with this one!  I also love opportunities to tie in the articles of faith to anything we talk about so I think tonight we'll go over the 12th: 

"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law."

It ties in perfectly and is only one sentence so it's an easy one to memorize!