Teach honesty by example and not by lecture

Sometimes we make promises to the people without realising whether it will be possible to keep them or not. But at times we promise certain things to the other people knowingly with an intention to deceive them due to some vested self interest. Neither it is a good habit nor is it acceptable. Take a real example in which a parent promised something to his son which he knew was not possible in the name asking the child to study hard and if the child got some particular percentage  or more then that the child was offered something of his choice. The child worked hard and got the marks more than what the father had asked for. Now the father went back on his words and told everybody that this was to make the child work hard and achieve good result. The intention of the father may be all right of motivating the child to perform well but the promise made should have also been kept. Now the child is so much disturbed that he does not want to believe any statement given by his father rather he has become so rebellious that he does not believe anyone. Though the father achieved the short term goal but in long term he has done tremendous harm to the child. This is one case mentioned here but I am sure we do the same, a number of times with our children,other family members and the people who come in our contact.Even when a teacher makes a promise to the students and does not fulfill it,what example is he/she setting? While teaching it happens a number of times that the students are promised a recognition and when the goal is achieved the promise is either forgotten or broken. There are many other incidents which might reflect the same story casting an everlasting impression on the minds of the young children.
When our children experience such episodes they are likely to get detached from elders.They already have so many things around them which make them to drift away from the family members and if we make such commitments this further multiply the problem.This example is when the child is awake and in senses talking to the elders we should be careful even when they are not really involved in any discussion in the school or at home. They are being exposed to everything that the elders do at home and get affected by that most of the times unknowingly.This was the example of a child who appeared in the public examination but even very young kids are also get affected by what we talk or do around them.Earlier we were of the opinion that the children get influenced by our thoughts and actions when they are not asleep. But the recent study and research done by the scientists in the Europe has confirmed that an infant as young as of age three months respond to the actions and thoughts around him. The scientists have mapped the responses of three months kids in different situations and they found that the children responded and were influenced even when they were sleeping.So we should not do anything negative in the presence of the children even if you feel that they are sleeping. This would not be true only to the child of three months but to all around us, though the degree of the effect might differ and the response may also be different.
What I wanted to remind all of us is that every action and the word spoken by us makes a difference to the lives of the people around us. And this is a fact that most of the time we are in the company of our own people so we should be absolutely careful of all our actions. This does not meant that we can do negatively in others presence but I am sure if we take care of behavior and the actions when our dear ones are around us, then we shall develop  good habits and shall behave in the same way in their presence also.If we follow this seriously the life of all the people will be very comfortable and we shall be able to enjoy this world better than what we do.Honesty is a virtue which should be taught by practising and not by preaching.