Just Be Honest - The Truth Will Set You Free

If I could give only one piece of advice to my kids and anyone that would actually listen, it is this: Just Be Honest. I'm not saying we have to go around confessing all of the thoughts and feelings that go through our head; just make sure that if you are going to say something, make it be true. We've all at some point in our life have had a moment where we try to backtrack or embellish the truth to make ourselves look better. Or maybe you tried to hide some facts that don't make you look as good as you thought. Sometimes things get out of control, the situation where one lie leads to bigger lies. For others the person that they most lie to is themselves, they only seek their own counsel and they completely buy into everything they tell themselves. I see it so often at work and it just wrecks working relationships that makes achieving goals that much harder as you spend more time fact checking to confirm the validity of what you are told. Dishonesty wrecks trust, if you have no trust you destroy the performance of any group.

Trust is destroyed because I believe eventually the truth does come out, I've seen it too many times. Kids you should pay attention to this point, don't lie to your parents because the vast majority of the time they will find out the truth. Ideally we are always honest and never get in a situation like that, unfortunately we are all human and prone to making more mistakes than we often admit. At some point then we are probably going to be caught in a lie, whether intentional or not, and how you react is a clear sign of the respect you have of the people you are confronted by. If you are argumentative, defensive or deflecting you are probably guilty, even if you don't want to admit it. Sometimes all we can do is apologize and work to make it better.

We are all human. We all make mistakes. We can't be afraid to apologize and move on. We have to want to make it better though, not try to be better at hiding the truth. Each of us have to start with being honest with ourselves, often that means having a group of mentors, advisers or friends that will tell us what we need to hear, even when we don't want to. John 8:32 says "the truth will set you free" but so many of us find we want to continue living in the prison we have built. Just be honest so you can enjoy your freedom.



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