Truth is Pretty

Baby's busted lip after stumbling on a landscape timber in our
flower garden.
Watch out for life's landscape timbers!

“Momma, I didn’t mean to lie.” When my daughter Karalee was eight years old, a lie slid right out of her mouth. Learning the importance of truth, she realized it immediately and set things straight. I reminded her gently how, as a Christian, the Holy Spirit was guiding and leading her. And I was proud to see her owning up to the wrong instead of covering up; she owned it. The following day, she got up early from a nap. I told her that I didn’t think she had really slept, and she said, “Momma, my Holy Spirit told me that I did!”

She was the cutest - little - thing. I tried desperately to choke back the laughter; but I laughed out loud. We still laugh about it today. That was a definite journal entry if there ever was one. She may have been telling the truth, but I honestly felt that cutie-pie was lying right through her teeth and using the Holy Spirit for a crutch.

Surely, many have heard of the TV series Pretty Little Liars. Honestly, I have never seen it; but I have definitely heard of it. I can’t purchase groceries without passing the magazine rack of "gorgeous" girls labeled “Pretty Little Liars.” I won’t pretend to know what the show is about. It could be about girls speaking truth, for all I know; but the message I receive is: lying=pretty.

God has been working on my heart in this area. Recently, as the girls and I were grocery shopping, we placed powdered sugar donuts in the shopping cart. The first words out of my mouth were, “You don’t have to tell Dad about these.” They slid right out. In my heart, I knew my husband might hassle me about the donuts because they are unhealthy. So I’m telling my girls they don’t have to “volunteer” the information. In other words, I’m teaching them to lie. I want to defend myself over that “fine line.” But there is no fine line where God is concerned. A lie is a lie, whether in the heart or out the mouth.

A lie is a lie. Lying is one legacy I don’t want to inadvertently pass down to my beautiful girls. Not only was Jesus truth, but He also spoke truth. As believers, we must follow His example. Remember, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth (John 16:13). He is not our crutch for lies. Truth must be habitual. We must be intentional. The truth is: sin leads to death. Lie=Die. Own the mistakes–the sin; call it what it is. A lie is not pretty. Truth=Life. Truth is pretty.

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9-10, NIV).

Lastly, gratefully and boldly swallow and savor the taste of God’s mercy and grace.