The Four-Way Test

South Hill Rotary Club/District 7600
Steven Swank, Third Place
Grade 7, Park View Middle School
Teacher:  Ms. Van Dyke

So have you ever heard the quote,” Actions speak louder than words?” What does it mean to you? First is truth. It is also known as being truthful. It means to tell the truth under any condition. It means to be honest to one another. Showing that you are responsible and can be trusted. You can show honesty by telling people the absolute truth. If you broke something, be honest and tell the person; that goes for if something happened at school, home, or anywhere else. You may get into trouble, but it won’t be as bad if you told them a lie. If you tell a lie, it will most likely make you or them mad. One time I lied to my mom about lighting then dropping a candle onto the floor and it burning the carpet. I didn’t want to tell my mom about it because I thought she may be furious about it because the carpet was almost new. But she found out and I now know that telling the truth is better than lying.
Second is friendship. Friendship means to be a good friend. Friendships’ being is being kind to others and respecting their privacy. It means to treat a friend or family member with the kind of respect you would want to be treated with. Friendship can also mean showing sportsmanship when playing a sport. Under the condition while playing, if someone is hurt, you should help them. If you are winning or losing, don’t get mad; keep trying your hardest. If you are sad, feeling down, or depressed, a good friend would help you get back on your feet. If your friend is sad, emotional, or whatever the cause may be you should help them. It doesn’t matter who is depressed, you should try your best to help anyone to feel better. A good sign of friendship would be my mom. She always puts my sister and me first. She does that because she loves us and likes to see us happy.
Third, I would like to tell you about goodwill. You may be thinking about the goodwill store where you donate things and get tax refunds. Goodwill deals with generosity. It means to be kind and nice to people. You could donate things for good causes. You could donate things around the world, or just in your local area. You could donate to charities all around the world. You can share offerings when you go to church,
help families that are homeless or live in bad conditions, or even children whom live in orphanages.
Fourth and last, I would like to tell you about fairness. Fairness can have many different definitions or meanings. One can play fairly with others. And share things such as toys or food. This is what the 4-way test means to me.