To Tell A Lie

It would straight up be a lie if I said that I had never lied. I’m embarrassed to share that because I’ve learned that a lie is straight from the pit of hell. Someone once said, that “a lie can be half-way around the world before the truth gets his running shoes on”. Lies really hurt our personal relationships and our business relationships. Lies actually hurt everyone who uses them. They seem to temporarily work, but the truth usually always finds its way out. I remember when my kids where young, I could handle broken heirlooms and stopped up toilets, but a lie would send me into a tail spin. I tried to teach them that one lie almost always led to more lies to cover the first one.

I want to be known as a truth teller. I want to be an open book with truth and honesty. In business, I love working with honest and honorable people. I don’t have to talk to them about honesty and integrity – they just live it out.  David prayed a bit of an urgent prayer regarding truthful and honest people. Check this out….

¹ Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!
    The faithful have vanished from the earth!
² Neighbors lie to each other,
    speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.

⁷ Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed,
    preserving them forever from this lying generation,
⁸ even though the wicked strut about,
    and evil is praised throughout the land. (Psalm 12:1-2,7-8 NLT)

I want to be known as a godly and faithful follower of Jesus. I want to be successful as a businessman, but not at the expense of my faith, my honor or integrity.

I think social media has made us a bit more accountable than before. If a kid tells their parents they are going to a friend’s house and they end of somewhere else, it is a bit easier to see that on their friends Facebook or Instagram. Accountability is not a bad thing. I see it as the bumper strips on the road to keep me in my lane. We have roads that have the bumper strips under the double yellow lines in the road as well as on the shoulder. If I drift over, the loud noise and vibration of my car remind me to stay in my lane. I am accountable to my wife, my children, my fellow Christ-followers, my co-workers and anyone else that I work with. I believe that I owe everyone who works with me or deals with me, the truth. I believe God calls me to be kind with the truth and not use it like a hammer. I heard someone recently say that Grace needs to enter the conversation right ahead of the truth.

Pressing On!

Dwayne