Listen! The Lord is calling to the city...
her people are liars, and their
tongues speak deceitfully.
Micah 6:9a,12b
My daughter, who is a member of MENSA, recently received the April/May issue of the American MENSA magazine. In it, there is a fascinating article called Truth Be Told. Starting from the standpoint that honest people are made and not born, various individuals responded to a question regarding what caused them to try and live a life of honesty. The answers are fascinating:
- A man whose life in college was nothing but a long string of lies opened a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant. It read: A clear conscience fears no midnight knocking.
- Another man was deeply affected as a child on discovering that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus did not exist. He said: It was especially significant to me since my otherwise always truthful family participated in this deception. His goal: honesty in all matters.
- A girl who was "dishonest" and "shifty" as a child continued her deceitful ways until she was a teenager, when it was revealed that her father was cheating on her mother. She pledged that day to be upright and "impeccably honest."
- The woman whose mother taught her "lying generates more lies to cover the first lie.
- The man who revealed that he learned about honesty "the moment in 3rd grade that it was exposed that not only could I not accurately forge my mother's signature, but it wasn't even close."
Always being scrupulously honest is not easy for any of us, but for the most part, telling the truth works out far better than telling a lie. Deceit is something that has a tendency to snowball. I distinctly remember praying to God during my teenage years: "Lord, if you will just cover up this lie I told, I'll never tell another one. Obviously, that prayer was never answered in the way I wanted. My goal every day is to live a completely transparent life. Do I always succeed? Sadly, no. But I keep reminding myself that a clear conscience is a great gift - to me!
No comments:
Post a Comment