You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2008.
We all know that famous saying about how the root of all evil is the love of money and indeed it’s a scriptural statement, but I’ve discovered over time that there is an even worse and more devious concept that has shown itself to be far more deadly and dangerous than the greed for money, in destroying lives and families. If you haven’t worked it out yet – it’s the deadly art of LYING!!
Right from the very outset of history and time, lies have been something that man has spoken to cover up sin and protect reputation etc. And lies don’t always come big and dark such as those perpetrated by politicians etc, because there’s not one of us who hasn’t committed the most common one of all – the “white” lie. That one you tell because you’re trying to not hurt someone – the typical one being when you’re asked your opinion on how someone looks and in an effort to please them you say whatever you think they want to hear rather than tell them what you’re really thinking. That one is so common it’s the source of multiple major jokes and most of us find it a harmless thing. But is it? I learnt a lot from having my 20-something stepdaughter living with me for a few years. She would routinely come in to see me wearing some new outfit she’d bought and wanting to know my opinion on it. When she first came to stay, I tended to say nice things even if I thought the outfit was hideous, but over time as we connected more and I came to know her tastes better etc, I got a better sense of what she did look well in and so by the time she was moving out last year, she knew she could trust me to tell her straight what I thought. I never hid my initial reaction and she knew immediately what my view was likely to be, so to tell her something different was hugely obvious to her and I learnt not to even try to be deceptive in my opinion. And while this was a very small example of the wisdom of truth over even the simplest of lies, I found sometimes that she would actually lie about situations such as being late for her work or not going in to work at all, spinning some tale to her boss – she would openly tell me about doing this, and always prefaced it with “God forgive me but…” My view on that was always if you have to ask God to forgive you in advance of something then you know you shouldn’t be doing it to start with!!
