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\u201cConscience is the impulse to do right because it is right, regardless of personal ends\u201d (Margaret C. Graham).<\/p>\n
NOT A DAY GOES BY THAT OUR CONSCIENCE DOESN\u2019T TEST US. Some of the tests are big while others are little, but the question is always the same: \u201cWill we do what our conscience tells us is right, or will we do something else, perhaps something less difficult or more pleasant?\u201d These tests, however insignificant they may seem, are important for two reasons: they demonstrate what kind of character we presently have, and they move our character further down one path or the other: either the path of goodness or that of evil. Every time we say yes or no to our conscience, we add a little more evidence to the record that will someday be our legacy.<\/p>\n
Joy.<\/em> If you\u2019ve never experienced the joy that comes from saying yes to your conscience, you really ought to try it. \u201cA good conscience is a continual Christmas\u201d (Benjamin Franklin). I\u2019ve lived in the world long enough to have enjoyed many of its pleasures, but I\u2019ve yet to find one that compares to the good feeling of going to bed at night knowing you\u2019ve done what your conscience said was right.<\/p>\n Stability.<\/em> There is no way to tell what any of us will have to deal with before our lives are over. If we haven\u2019t already done so, some of us may experience significant and unexpected hardship, and we may think we can\u2019t find anything steady to hang on to. But a clear conscience is an amazingly stable thing, despite the twists and turns of life in this vale of tears. \u201cThere is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its course, a quiet conscience\u201d (Euripides).<\/p>\n We admire those who, in the great hours of historical crisis, have taken a heroic stand on the basis of conscience. Most of us, however, will never stand in the spotlight of history, and even if we did, our moment there might not be the most accurate measure of our character. A truer indication of that would be whether we listen to our conscience in the quiet, personal moments \u2014 those times when God alone knows what we\u2019ve chosen. Faced with such private decisions (which, in the real world, can be extremely complex), we should never do anything less than what is right<\/em> \u2014 just because it\u2019s right.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other, so help me God. Amen\u201d (Martin Luther).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n