Don't Lie, But...

Act 24:

“It’s never too late… To Tell The Truth

Lies are a burden. They entangle us and weigh us down. Truth always fights to break out. It usually succeeds anyway. It’s not worth the struggle. Telling the truth clears the air. Lifts the burden. Liberates.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “When in doubt, tell the truth.” ~ Anonymous

When I was younger, I had a propensity to lie. I used to get in trouble all the time for lying and the punishments were pretty horrible. My dad used to make me do chair sits on the wall or make me kneel with my nose touching the wall, then make me extend my arms out to the sides and put books on them every time he would catch me in a lie. For all you parents out there, it’s not spanking, but just as (if not more) effective in making your point!

So if we’re taught to tell the truth at a young age, why do we lie in the first place? Well I find that we lie for different reasons depending on who the lie is to. If we lie to other people, it’s mostly because it’s about something we’re ashamed of or we don’t want to be judged or we did something bad. If we lie to ourselves, it’s because we don’t want to deal or we want to forget. Lies breed more lies. You tell one and then you tell another one to keep the lie going. They spread like wildfire.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” – Sir Walter Scott. When you lie, it is hard on you, because you have to remember the lie you told and who you told it to. Telling the truth is just easier all around. There is no fear of being found out. No secrets. No hiding. Telling the truth releases your soul.

But it’s not always easy to tell the truth, because we are human. We do care about what other people think. We do give into the fear. We do want to forget. We do want to hide. We do want to push all the bad things and bad feelings away. So we lie. We want the world to see us as we wish we were, not as we really are. We want to see ourselves as we wish we were, not as we really are.

So, in my view, the first step on the path to telling truth is to accept the thing about yourself that you want to lie about. If you accept it, deal with it, don’t hide from it, you’re less likely to lie about it (at least not to yourself). I know there are reasons to lie to others (like protect your image or to save face) and it’s not realistic to think that we will always tell the truth to each other, but don’t lie to yourselves.

Never lie to yourself. Love yourself for who you are. Accept that it’s ok to have faults. It’s the things that we overcome that make us who we are. If we don’t have struggles or adversity, life would be boring. We are always stronger afterwards. Embrace the thing that you’re ashamed of and find a way to be ok with it. Let it out. I’m not saying tell someone else, although most of the time finding out that someone supports us and loves us anyway, helps. Tell the truth to yourself. To a rock. To the sky. To your computer. Write it on a blank page. You don’t have to save, send it, or show it to anyone. Or tell someone you trust. You’re true friends/family will love you and support you no matter what.

I’m not naïve enough to think that always telling the truth is a good thing. When a girl asks you to if she looks fat, LIE! If a guy asks you if size matters, LIE! If a kid younger than 10 asks you if Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy are real, LIE! White lies keep the peace. So I guess my view on this whole thing is tell the truth as long as you’re not hurting someone else? That seems so simplistic and I’m sure I can probably think of a lot examples where that doesn’t work, but I'm gonna go w/ it for now.

Even if you take a vow to tell the truth from now on, remember not everyone else is on board w/ the "tell the truth" plan. But how about this… make a pledge to tell the truth about yourself to someone else. Just one thing. Open yourself up. It probably won’t be as bad as you think.

So here’s my small truth that I will tell: I don’t write these blogs EVERY day. I sometimes write them in advance! Forgive me. =) (see it doesn’t have to be a big truth…) haha

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs about telling the truth. It’s one of the first songs that popped into my head when I saw this Act.

Truth of My Youth by New Found Glory

There was a time and place
Where I never thought
I'd leave my own hometown
But those days finally
Are dead and gone
It was never my intention to stay there
Oh no

There was a concious effort played by me
To disown anything I see
There was a girl I knew
Way back when
Who says she doesnt know me anymore
These are the lies the things you never mention
These are my past mistakes I'll stay away from

These are my thoughts written down on paper
It's my only savior
From not saying what I want to say
These are the thoughts that are on my mind
Moments that haven't yet been defined
And I don't know if you could ever understand
These are the things I can't say when were alone

There were countless hours on the telephone
My ears were ringing from the dial tone
There were flashing lights
People staring
There was nothing I could ever do
These are the lies the things you never mention
These are my past mistakes I'll stay away from

This is the truth
The only time you'll hear it
I write it down because it seems so hard to say it

These are my thoughts written down on paper
It's my only saviour
From not saying what I want to say
There are my thoughts that are on my mind
Moments that haven't yet been defined
And I don't know if you could ever understand
These are the things I can't say when we're alone