--- title: Honest with yourself: excuses, pride and the truth inside — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Honest with yourself: excuses, pride and the truth inside», a lesson of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Excuses protect how we look but stop us fixing the real problem; "My dog ate my homework" sounds easier --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Religion ethics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/) / Honest with yourself: excuses, pride a… # Honest with yourself: excuses, pride and the truth inside Lesson 98 of the religion ethics course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/0/) — Excuses protect how we look but stop us fixing the real problem; "My dog ate my homework" sounds easier than "I forgot", but only the truth gets the homework done. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/1/) — Being honest inside means checking your own story: Rachel wrote that a fight was all her friend's fault, and reading her diary a week later she's not so sure. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/2/) — Christians practise looking back over the day: give thanks and notice where you went wrong; Ignatius of Loyola taught this prayer, the Examen, in the 1500s. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/3/) — Honesty inside also means facing your real reasons, your real feelings and the real numbers, like checking your actual screen time instead of guessing "an hour, max". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/4/) — The bravest honesty is saying "That's a good point" when the other side is right, or "I'm not sure" when you aren't. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/5/) — In Jesus's parable of the great banquet, the guests "all alike began to make excuses" (Luke 14:18); excuses stop us fixing the real problem. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/6/) — "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts" (Psalm 139:23). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/7/) — The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius kept a private notebook, the Meditations, to be honest with himself; an honest diary helps you see both sides. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/8/) — "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord" (Lamentations 3:40); Ignatius of Loyola, in the 1500s, taught the daily prayer called the Examen. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/9/) — Benjamin Franklin kept a chart of thirteen virtues and marked his faults every day. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/10/) — "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17): ask people who care about you, and really listen. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/11/) — People who are new at something often think they are better at it than they are. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/12/) — "Do everything without grumbling or arguing" (Philippians 2:14): call a loss fair when it was fair. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/13/) — "Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them" (Matthew 6:1-4); being honest about your reasons helps you do good for good reasons. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/14/) — "Jesus wept" (John 11:35); feelings are nothing to be ashamed of, and sadness that's shared often eases sooner than sadness that's hidden. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/15/) — "Be very careful, then, how you live... making the most of every opportunity" (Ephesians 5:15-16); people often misjudge their own screen time, so check the real number. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/16/) — "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry" (James 1:19); olympiad judges give points for engaging fairly with the other side. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/17/) — "Do not spread false reports" (Exodus 23:1); honesty includes not claiming more certainty than you have. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/98-honest-with-yourself-excuses-pride-and-the-truth-inside/18/) — Slang check: "proper job" (Cornwall) means fine, all good; "yinz" (Pittsburgh) means you all; "well over it" means completely over it. - ← previous: [Honest with yourself: admitting you were wrong](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/97-honest-with-yourself-admitting-you-were-wrong/) - next →: [Olympiad dilemmas: friends, truth and telling](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/99-olympiad-dilemmas-friends-truth-and-telling/) - ↑ back to [Religion ethics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/)