Burden to Impart:

The most basic area to build up in our character is genuineness, which includes honesty, sincerity, and truthfulness. The next area to build upon genuineness is exactness. It is very rare to find a person who is exact in his character. The degree of exactness we have in our character can be measured by the accuracy of our words, the quality of our work, and the degree of punctuality we practice. A person whose words are accurate is dependable; a person whose work is done with exactness is trustworthy; and a person who is punctual does not procrastinate.

Facts to Teach:

1. Being genuine, honest, and truthful is the most basic character that we should possess in order to be a vessel unto honor, one that can be usable to the Lord. In other words, in our daily life this is the area we should always be the most watchful over; never saying anything that is not true and genuine, never doing anything that is false or pretentious.
2. The next area of our character that must be built up is exactness. If we are not exact with respect to time, words, and our work we may cause others to even doubt if we are genuine, that is, honest, sincere, and real.
3. To be exact is very difficult and requires us to be absolutely accurate. This requires more carefulness and effort from us. For this reason most people take the easier, lazier way of doing things.
4. Three areas in which to build up exactness are:
   1. Time--If one is exact in his awareness of time he will be punctual. He will have things done on time. Most people are not careful managers of their time. This causes them to be late to appointments, meetings, etc. The only way to be exact in time (to be punctual) is to not procrastinate, that is, to not put off for later what we should do now. In order to be punctual, one must plan to be a little early.
   2. Words--Our words must be accurate. Although some people are not purposely lying or deceiving, they seem to be because their words are not accurate. Therefore they are not dependable. We must be careful with our words not to exaggerate (make something bigger or greater than it actually is). We must be especially careful with numbers.
   3. Work--Most people do not to an exact job when they work, therefore their work is not very trustworthy. They feel that if they completed 90% of the job then that is good enough. They do things just good enough to get by. They do not do things carefully and thoroughly. This is due to carelessness and laziness. A good worker will do exactly what he is supposed to do. It will be done 100%.
5. An illustration of exactness is the good shepherd who knew exactly how many sheep he had. He carefully counted and thus knew that one was missing. He went and searched for the lost sheep until he found it (Luke 15:4). Our Lord Jesus is very exact. He found each one of us.