The Danger Of The Little White Lie
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain
EAV:e779c748faa5d0d1This quote had a big impact on me. Not that I’m a liar or anything, but I have been prone to the polite lies of peace-keeping society. Insidiously they can sneak into your mind and become a habit. And therein lies the danger. The more you allow the kind lies of polite society infiltrate your soul the more blurred the line between what’s true and not true will become. Suddenly you will catch yourself telling a whopper of a real lie for no reason. Now how did that happen?
You opened the door to deceit in your heart and in waltzes evil to take up residence. Now I have a girlfriend. A very good girl friend who I talk to daily on the phone. She just doesn’t lie. Then, I noticed she was telling me about a white lie she told the day before and right there on the phone she started to pray and ask God to forgive her. I was really touched. She was letting me into her personal prayer life — that we had both done before. Not only that, she was exposing a weakness and confessing it before me and God and repenting right then and there. She was making a decision to be genuine before people and before her Lord.
That is exactly how we should be with one another in love: transparent. Calling it like we see it. What she had done wasn’t so terrible, that wasn’t the point. The point was, it troubled her conscience and she wanted to make it right immediately, as soon as she thought of it, so she did.
Wow, if we could all be like that with each other, what an awesome world this would be. And if we offended someone — repenting and asking forgiveness right at the moment. Clearing the air and mending the situation with love and a hug. What a great way to live. I’m committing myself tonight to more transparency in life. More honesty with myself and with others. If we’re totally straight with people, we don’t have to try to remember anything as Mark Twain says. We don’t have to keep any story straight because there never was one.
Let’s not worry so hard about putting our best foot forward and looking and acting perfect that we’re telling polite little fibs all over the place, let’s conduct ourselves with transparency and honesty. Be real with each other. Honest. Meet each other with the truth and a genuine spirit of sharing. Not only will it keep us out of danger, it will improve the quality of all of our relationships by giving people the best gifts we have: ourselves and the truth.
Mare, my dear friend and I
Libby Baker Sweiger 
Libby this is such a good post, I love it when someone says, “I may have embellished on the story a bit” one of those magic words that begs, let me skate by on this one. I am so glad you are my dear friend.
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I am glad we’re such good friends, too! Yes embellishment, white lies, deceit comes in many pleasant names, but ties our heart up in knots! I’m so thankful to Mare for her act of repentance to freely given touched my heart so! God bless you, Tom!
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Lovely Libby, I give all glory to God! I am also thankful He touched you through me, cuz I belelive thats what friends are for! I thank Him for our friendship, for the fact that we can repent, & well for everything… I love you my dear Lovely Libby!
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The glory goes to God and the thank yous go to you! Thankful to Him that we are friends. Thankful for you and to you for your transparency before Him and in your relationships. I guess the cat is out of the bag I was talking about you Mare. Or maybe it was when you gave me permission to use a photo of us! Lovely friendship and Heather makes three. Hope we see her soon too! 🙂 Love you!
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Libby,
Another GREAT Post!… I wonder what the world would be like without those little white lies… I bet it would be a fair bit uncomfortable at 1st BUT in the long run the world would be a better place Your friend RICH :0)
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Thank you Rich. That is our worry. What will happen if I don’t say the polite little lie? I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I think it would make for relationships that are built on the truth about how we feel, therefore closer and more real. So, yes a better place, indeed! Your friend always, Libby 🙂
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Libby, I’m a little behind in my reading! I’m with you… Don’t like Lies and Little White ones! Merry Christmas and cheers to 2012!!!
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