A family was struggling over how to word the obituary for their Uncle Harry. Uncle Harry was a mean person all of his life. As a matter of fact, he was a convicted criminal who had just been executed in the electric chair at the state prison. The family didn’t want to say all of this in the obituary. On the other hand, they didn’t want to say things about Uncle Harry that were not true. After discussing the matter at length, here is part of what they came up with.

“Uncle Harry held a position in the chair of applied electronics in a prominent government institution. His death came as quite a shock.”

When Jesus walked the earth, he was full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Since he is our perfect example, we need to work hard to find ways of conveying the truth as gracefully as we possibly can. People often err on one side or the other, but we must always strive to be both correct and compassionate.

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”—Ephesians 4:15.