During the month of April, Verideia students focus on the virtue of HONESTY (a commitment to truthful ways and words) As students hear stories like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, George Washington and the Cherry Tree, Pinocchio, and the poem ‘Truth Never Dies’ their moral imaginations are better aligned with the character of God, expressed in truthfulness which is observing the spirit of God’s ninth commandment.
A current real-life example of this formation of the moral imagination took place this week in the hearts of our kindergarten students as they heard the story of Ananias and Sapphira from Act 5. Students were able to narrate this story and then one of them asked whether Ananias and Sapphira will be in heaven. The backstory which is important, is that Mrs. Mtowela had been teaching her students about the virtue of honesty, that God hates lying lips and the seriousness of the sin of lying. So, when in their Bible story time, students learned about God taking the lives of these two pioneers of the early church, it makes sense that a student would ask if this generous but deceitful husband and wife would go to heaven. And how did this apply to real life? Well, later that same day a student strongly warned another student who was lying, about the consequences of lying which God graciously used in said student resulting in a change of behaviour and a basic admission of guilt. God’s Spirit, on the move!
If we are honest with ourselves, which we often are not, we know we are often dishonest with not only ourselves but with others and for that matter our Lord and Saviour. When we lack integrity in the fundamentals of truthfulness, we are living contrary to our new nature as God’s children and heirs of Christ. May we all model repentance of our dishonesty thankful that Jesus is the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life.
