I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today, I am even more grateful that I live in this country that allows us to worship how and were we may. This blessing I know as you to are aware did not come to us without any sacrifice.

When our founding Fathers founded this great country know as the United States of America they were as we are instructed and lead by the hand of the Lord. The Lord brought them to this country and then helped them form a new government. As our fore fathers reviewed the weaknesses that existed in the governments that they had been subject to in the old world they knew that they would need a system that had with it checks and balances.

In this new form of government they determined with the help of the Lord that there would be three branches of government, the Legislative responsible for making new laws, the executive which was responsible to administer the laws and affairs of the nation, and the judicial which was responsible to administer justice through interpretation of the law. In the judicial a very important principle was introduced that of legal precedents. This principle would dictate the manner by which the law would be interpreted. The principle is this; if one is to make a decision he must make it in relation to all other rulings and decisions that have been made prior to this point. The idea was that the country could not be radically changed by just a few men overnight, but would have to be changed through the legislative branch of government then ruled upon by the judicial branch.

Therefore the intentions written up in the constitution by our forefathers would be kept in tack for many generations. You see our forefathers knew in theory that it would take a long time to fall away from the original meaning of the constitution if all law was based on prior rulings or precedents. If a judge was not permitted to just through out all the old and start with his own interpretation every time he would be forced to make a consistent ruling based on all other cases similar in nature.

Just as there is a constitution that keeps this country headed in the proper direction and provides the basic set of precedents we too have our own personal constitutions and precedents that keep us headed in a certain direction. Like the judicial branch of government which is set up to function on precedents so to our lives are set up to function based on precedents. We have moral precedents; it is not very often that a person wakes up one morning and decides that they will rob a bank, unless they decided to take some cash from the till of their employer the day before, and to steal a small item from the department store the day before that, and to take a candy bar from the convience store the day before that.

We are creatures of habit or precedents that we have set for ourselves. An action that we may not even consider ourselves doing today, may become quite easy tomorrow as a result of the precedents that we have set for ourselves today.

There are many precedents in our life from ethical to moral, from the letter to the spirit of the law.

One area were we have the opportunity to establish precedents every day is in honesty. It matters not if we are old or young the decisions that we make today will establish the precedents for honesty for the rest of our lives.

There are three main areas were daily we are faced to establish precedents 1) Honesty to ourselves 2) Honesty to our fellowmen 3) Honesty to our Father in Heaven.

One could argue; that if a person has not established the precedent to be honest to himself then he or she will have a difficult time in being honest with their fellowmen or our Father in Heaven.

As Shakespeare said "This above all; to thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Brigham Young said "Honest hearts produce honest actions&emdash;holy desires produce corresponding outward works. Fulfill your contracts and sacredly keep your word."

Why be honest we might say when so much of the world is not? The answer is that "We will always know who and what we are" and the fact is as stated in 1 Nephi 10:21"that no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of god."

The bottom line is that we will always know; we cannot lie to ourselves. If you really think about it you cannot lie to yourself. you know deep down inside you know the truth and you cannot hide it or run from it as it is just there. We will someday stand before our maker with a bright recollection of our guilt we are told. The only question we must answer is what kind of precedents are we setting for being honest with ourselves.

A story to illustrate

A long time ago in China there was a boy named Ping who loved flowers. Anything he planted burst into bloom. Up came flowers, bushes, and even big fruit trees, as if by magic!

He was fortunate that he lived in an kingdom where everyone loved flowers including the Emperor. The Emperor loved birds and animals, but most of all he loved flowers and spent most of his spare time in his garden among his flowers. He planted flowers everywhere in the kingdom, they were so abundant that it is said that if you took a big breathe your nose would fill with the wildest aroma of floral perfume.

The Emperor was getting very old and as was the custom he would be required to determine a successor to the throne. The Emperor knew that the choice would not be easy, but it must be done. He was troubled for weeks over how to determine which of all the children in the land should take his place. One night while working in his garden he determine that because of his love for flowers he would determine the next Emperor by allowing them to raise flowers on their own.

The next day a proclamation was made throughout the land. All the children in the land were to come to the palace. There they would be given special flower seeds by the Emperor.

"Whoever can show me their best in a year's time" he said, "will succeed me to the throne."

This news created great excitement throughout the land! Children from all over the country swarmed to the palace to get their very own flower seeds and to get started in their quest to become the next emperor.

All the parents of course wanted their children to be chosen Emperor, and all the children hoped that they would be chosen too!

When the young Ping received his flower seeds from the Emperor was the happiest of all, for he knew that he possessed a special talent for making things bloom. He was sure that he could grow the most beautiful flower in the land and the Emperor would be most proud of Ping and name him the new Emperor.

Ping hurried home and selected the finest soil from his backyard. He placed some soil in a beautiful hand painted pot and mixed in some fertilizer to ensure that the plant would grow to its fullest potential. Then very carefully Ping placed the seed into the soil and covered it with soil.

Then Ping placed the flower pot into an area on the back porch of his house that would receive the proper amount of sunlight. He watered his precious flower each and every day. He waited and watched with much excitement to see the flower sprout from the soil in hopes that it would blossom into a beautiful flower.

Day after day passed, however nothing grew from Pings pot. Ping was very worried, what could the matter be why would the special seeds from the Emperor not sprout? What had Ping done wrong? Was it the pot he wondered? So he placed the seed in a bigger pot and still nothing happened. Was it the soil? He placed the seeds into a different kind of soil and still nothing happened. In fact another two months went by and Ping had nothing to show for his efforts. The seasons had all passed, the year had come and gone and still Ping had no growth from the special seeds of the Emperor.

Then the glorious day that all the children had waited for had arrived. The children put on their best clothes to greet the Emperor. They rushed to the palace with their beautiful flowers, eagerly hoping to be chosen. Ping however was most ashamed of his empty pot. He thought the other children would laugh at him because for once he couldn't get a flower to grow.

His clever friend ran by, holding a great big plant. "Ping" he said. You're really not going to the Emperor with an empty pot are you? Couldn't you grow a great big beautiful flower like mine?"

"I've grown lots of flowers better than yours," Ping said "It's just these seeds that I got from the Emperor they will not grow." Just then Pings father arrived on the scene and declared

"Ping you did your best, and your best is good enough to present to the Emperor."

Holding the empty pot in his hands, Ping went straight away to the palace. The Emperor viewed the pot in each childs hands he looked at the size of the flower, he looked at the pot that it was planted in and would stick his finger in to the soil to determine that the soil was rich and well watered. Then the Emperor would look into the eyes of each child frown and not say a single word.

Finally the Emperor came to Ping, Ping hung his head in shame expecting to be punished.

The Emperor spoke to Ping and said "Why did you bring an empty pot?" To which Ping started to cry and then replied "I planted the seeds that you gave to me and I watered them every day, but they did not sprout. I put them in a bigger pot, and still nothing happened, I put them in different soil again nothing happened. So today I had nothing to bring but an empty pot without a flower. It was the best that I could do."

When the Emperor heard these words, a smile slowly spread over his face, and he put his arm around Ping. then exclaimed to one and all " i have found him! I have found the one person that is worthy to be the Emperor!"

"Where you got your seeds from, I don't know. For the seeds which I gave you were all cooked. So that it was impossible for any of them to grow. I admire Pings great courage to appear before me with the empty truth, and now I reward him with my entire kingdom and make him Emperor of the Land."

Ping had set for himself a very important precedent, that he could grow a flower from some other seeds and have something to show the Emperor as the other children had done, or he could be honest with himself and try his best to grow a flower from the seeds that the Emperor had given him.

Brigham Young Said "Only be honest with yourselves, and you will be honest to the brethren."

Now let us reflect for a moment on honesty with our fellowmen. What kind of precedents are you setting for yourself in regard to being honest with your fellowmen.

Again Brigham Young said "I have tried to suppress dishonesty in individuals, and have tried thereby to make them honest. If I hire a carpenter and pay him three dollars a day, and he is three days in making a six-panel door that a good workman can make in one, or even a door and a half, I do not want to pay him three dollars a day for the labor.

We want the Saints to increase in goodness, until our mechanics, for instance, are so honest and reliable that this Railroad Company will say, "Give us a 'Mormon' Elder for an engineer, then none need have the least fear to ride, for if he knows there is danger he will take every measure necessary to preserve the lives of those entrusted to his care." I want to see our

Elders so full of integrity that they will be preferred by this Company for their engine builders, watchmen, engineers, clerks, and business managers. If we live our religion and are worthy the name of Latter-day Saints, we are just the men that all such business can be entrusted to with perfect safety; if it cannot it will prove that we do not live our religion. "

"One liar is like a bad king. A corrupt and wicked king can corrupt a whole nation. One liar can deceive thousands. A very simple person can tell the truth, but it takes a very smart person to tell a lie and make it appear like the truth. Simple truth, simplicity, honesty, uprightness, justice, mercy, love, kindness, do good to all and evil to none, how easy it is to live by such principles! A thousand times easier than to practice deception!"

An example of being honest with our fellowmen is demonstrated in the story of the farmer and the baker. I am sure that many of you have hear this story but it is short and well worth repeating.

As the story is told .there was certain farmer who decide to make fair trades with the local baker. The agreement was that the farmer would bring to the baker every day one pound of butter in turn the baker would provide one pound of bread in exchange. As the story goes; after many months of trading the baker thought that the butter that he was receiving from the farmer kept getting lighter and lighter, so he decided to put the supposed pound of butter on the scale and as he suspected the butter was far short of the pound that had been agreed upon in the beginning.

On the next day the baker determined to ask the farmer why he decided to be dishonest and cheat the baker out of butter, to which the farmer replied " I am poor and have no scale at home, and in an effort to be honest with you Mr. Baker I would balance each morning the butter with the bread that I received from you. So that there would be no injustice done.

The farmer had established for himself a very noteworthy precedent in dealing with his fellowmen, only if the baker had established such precedents for himself.

J.P. Senne said "Money dishonestly acquired is never worth its cost, while a good conscience never costs as much as it is worth"

Our conscience brings us to being Honest with our Father in Heaven. What kind of precedents have we set for ourselves here. Have we established the precedent that of all our money that we have earned the very first of it, the Lords Tenth goes immediately to the Lord? Or are we establishing the precedent that what is left will go to the Lord. There is a story told of how there were three men A mormon, a Catholic and a Jew and they were telling of how they determined what belonged to the lord. The mormon said that we draw a ten circles on the ground throw the money in the air and what lands inside one of the circles belongs to the Lord. The lords tenth. The catholic said we have a simpler method we draw a circle on the ground and throw the money up in the air and what lands in the circle is the lords everything else is ours. The Jew said "we have an even simpler method, we through the money up in the air what the Lord wants he keeps what ever hits the ground is ours"

Now I tell this story that as we come to the time of year were we get to declare our tithing worthiness that we can look at the precedents that we are setting toward payment of tithing and determine if we are like one of the men in the story? What of ours belongs to the Lord. The precedent of tithing is a very important principle of the gospel, we as members of the church have consecrated all that we have to the Lord all he asks for right now is ten percent but the precedent is being set to live the united order. How could we ever consider that we could live the united order if we have not established in our lives the precedent of living the law of tithing?

In Addition to tithing; when we ask the Lord for forgiveness are we really being honest with the Lord? Are we really trying to change our lives that we might gain forgiveness or are we just asking? When we fast is it an honest fast or are we just starving? When we pray are we honestly searching for an answer or are we just going through the motions?

In closing I pray that we may establish precedents in our lives of honesty to ourselves, toour fellowmen, and to our Father in Heaven. That we may return to his presence from which wecame is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN