Ke Akua gave humanity the gift of free will.
But with our choices come consequences.
In today’s society, there seems to be a gray area around what is pono.
What are some guidelines to help determine if something
(an activity, a relationship, a decision, etc.) is right or not?
Click on comments to submit your manaʻo…
If the thing that you are doing is going to hurt you or someone else that is not the right option. If youʻre breaking the law that is not a good thing, if you are helping someone that is a good thing. So you really have to think about the outcome of your situation.
To help guide yourself in knowing if something is pono or not would be to think about the possible outcome of the choice or think 10 steps ahead of the situation. You will be put through many many obstacles or go through something that might make you re-think if you made the right choice. Trust your gut…. You know absolutely when something Is wrong when you make a choice behind someones back or when no one is watching you.
God gave us free will to do what ever we want or please to do. Now it is up to us on how we as the children of God choose to use our free will. You know if something is right to do because you feel it. Your parent (s) have taught us ways of knowing good versus bad choices. If the choice or what you are doing is good then you will not feel ashamed of it. When you do something bad you know its bad and you feel it that it is not Pono. Simple. For example, would you steal, cheat, etc. in front of your parents? If you said No, that is how you know it is not good or a Pono decision.
Some guidelines for something being good or not would be
-if it feels right to you
-if you would do it in front of people
-if your parents would approve
-if it makes you and other people around you happy
-if it is safe and cannot cause harm
To me somethings that can be used to determined if a decision is wrong are, notice how to effects the people around you. For example if you choose to constantly not listen to your parents then you will begin to notice that they will become more mad and then your relationship with your parents will be poor and not happy. One more is how the relationship, decision or action makes you feel. If one is to do something be choice and they do not feel good or happy then that is a sign that the choice they have made could have been the wrong one.
Some guidelines that came to mind when i thought about making a right or wrong choice is to first, determine what are choices you can make. Then, you go over all the consequences that you may receive if you act upon those choices, whether they’re good or not. Lastly, you yourself have to choose what choice you believe is right for you/world. (whatever situation you’re in)
In my opinion, I believe that everyone has varying opinions on what is pono and what is not depending on how they were brought up. For me, I use my family values and previous experiences to decide if something is pono. If the activity has me go against my values or I feel very uncomfortable doing it I know it’s not right. Another way I decide is by trusting my gut intuition. Additionally I think of the effects of the decision will impact later on. Too often I think that we don’t stop and reflect on the consequences of our actions and this could cause the most damage. Last but not least, I think of how it would affect others around me. If the situation causes me to act in a way unpleasing to the lord, a way that I would not want my parents or other loved ones to see, or that I myself am ashamed or if the situation causes me to question my morals and others around me to question my morals (even a moments hesitation) I know that it’s not a situation I should be in.
In Isaiah 45:19 it says “I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.” This is saying what God has said is right is right. And because the bible is the truth it says what is right and wrong. There is also things that you can know are right and wrong. Your morals scream at you when you do something that is against what you believe in.
There are multiple guidelines that can help us determine if something is right or wrong today. We can look to the scriptures to find answers or pray for personal revelation on what we should do or whether or not it’s right. We always have our parents to help us and teach us. We also always have the Holy Ghost by our side to guide us in making the right choices. We might look to the commandments and compare them with our decisions or the activities we might be participating in. We have counselors at school that we can trust as well.
Heavenly Father gave us free will because he thought we could take care and obey the right. But some people disobey his law and don’t really care. For example, people who do violence to others or who just are criminals, tend to forget the reason why God gave us free will. So its better to obey and choose the right so life will be better with God in your life.
When in a “gray area,” you can ask yourself if it was something that would be considered sinful years back. If that still doesn’t help, then look into the Bible. Your consequences will be based on your decisions and you will get what you deserve. By all means, you will learn from your mistakes and the “gray area” should then be clear to you.
Some guidlines you could use to help determine what is right or not could be asking your self is this something that my family would be proud of me doing? If yes then great, if no then you should rethink your actions.
Another guidline that could help you determine what is right or not could be is what Iʻm doing going to benefit me or not if your actions will not benefit you then you should not do it.
There are many different guidelines that could help use to determine what is right or not but most of the time when you find yourself questioning your actions they will not be right, remember what would Jesus do ?
God has given us the gift of free agency and with that comes great responsibility and honor. For me to decide what the right decision is, I try to see what the long term consequence is, and then decide if it ends up being a good or bad outcome. I also try to think what my parents and family would say if they found out the decision I made. I also think that if it’s what I want and I am not pressured into it then it should and would be the right decision because I have faith in myself that I know what is right from wrong, and that I would make the right decision.
In society, it is hard to determine what God would say is pono. If we are confused, we should try to talk to someone like Kahu who could possibly guide us in to choosing the righteous decision. We can also look up advice from our bibles, wether it is through an index (we have one in our middle school bibles) or through the internet. A verse that stuck out to me was “Stop being deceived: “Wicked friends lead to evil ends.” from 1 Corinthians 15:33. You could apply this to relationships. If you hang out with people with differing morals than you in which you think are bad, you’ll probably fall from your own morals. If they don’t have a relationship with God yet, it would be great for you to share your beliefs with them sometimes, but you probably shouldn’t have a close relationship with them because they will try to take you away from what you believe. In conclusion, who we hang out with says alot about us to other people. Even if you’re a sweet caring person, but you hang out with people known to be cruel, others will think you’re mean too. It’s great to talk to everyone, but we should be close with people who share common morals.
Jesus gave us the gift of freedom, but when we decide what to do sometimes our decisions come with consequences. In society today, we have a lot of judgement around us no matter what we do. We can determine if what we do is right or not, by thinking about the conclusion, and the future, and if what we are about to do is going to be right or not.
Some guidelines that help determine if something is right or not is if you have a feeling in your gut that, that is the wrong thing to do, then don’t do it. Another guideline is that if your parents would be disappointed in you if you did this then you probably shouldn’t do it. The final guideline would have to be that if its a sin, or if its not following gods word, and if god says that its not the pono thing to do, then you shouldn’t do it.
To help guide yourself in knowing if something is right or not would be to think and open your eyes so you realize and understand what the outcomes of your situation may be. You will be put through peer pressure or go through something that will make you second guess yourself. So things like that; that do not make you feel comfortable or that doesn’t make you trust yourself in the matter are signs that you shouldn’t be doing that and you should be a leader to yourself because doing good will help you become a better person inside and out and it will make you feel better.
A guideline that i would use to determine if something is good or not would be to ask yourself if you really want to do what your about to do, to just think before you do something you might regret in the future. For example if someone offered you drugs, think about how it could affect you and the people around you, would it have a positive or negative affect in your life. Another example would be is if you were in a not-so-good relationship, where your boyfriends a jerk or your girlfriends a snob (or something like that) then you should ask yourself, “am i happy with them?”, “do they make me feel good about myself?” and if they donʻt make you happy or make you feel good about yourself then maybe their not the right one for you, there are plenty of fish in the sea.
So, i guess my overall answer would be to think about how your decision could affect your past, present, and future. Plus youʻll know if something is Good or Bad,you just need to make the choice about listening to what God is trying to tell you, but we have freewill so God will love you no matter your decision.
The word “pono” can have a different meaning in everyone’s life; it just depends on how they were raised and the environment they were raised in. But to me, we can determine if something is right or not by deciding if it will positively affect not just myself, but the others around me. Something can’t be deemed “right” if it only benefits one person and does harm for the others around. Another thing that determines if something is pono is whether you’re doing something just because you’ll receive something out of it, or whether you’re doing it out of the kindness of your heart. We should all strive to be pono in everything we do.
For me if you think about if it is right or not you probably shouldn’t be doing that. If that thing you are doing is illegal or it is something you wouldn’t normally do you shouldn’t do it. When I say “wouldn’t normally do” means if you didn’t do it because you thought it was bad. Although you should try to step out of your comfort zone.
I think that some guidelines that either a Relationship, activity, choice etc. is pono or not is if you ask your self whether or not if god were to see you making that decision, or participating in that activity, or being in that relationship would he approve of you making that choice (s) or engaging activity. Also if your parents, grandparents, or kumu saw you doing these things would they approve of you doing that.