Pride will lead you to embellish the truth to help you feel better about yourself or to make you look better than others. Seductive thoughts will lead you to flattery and alluring twists of the truth. A greedy heart will hide the true faults of a product and embellish its virtues just to make a sale.

But beware, stretching the truth for your personal advantage ultimately backfires. It’s our character that suffers as landmark virtues like trust and credibility, two building blocks of successful relationships, get slain on the battlefield of our self-serving twisting of the truth. Turning anger to patience and forgiveness; turning self-serving instincts to loving others; turning pride to true humility and greed to generosity will enable you to have the courage to experience the joy of telling it like it really is—which, believe it or not, will ultimately produce better outcomes than stressing yourself out by always twisting and turning the truth to your own gain. As the poet Sir Walter Scott said, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”

YOUR JOURNEY…

In what kind of situations do you tend to distort the truth? Choose the most prevalent one and make a plan to tell the truth regardless.
Think through the kinds of internal problems that tempt you to stretch and twist the truth. What steps could you take to transition your sinful attitude to a truth-telling attitude?
Make a plan now to take at least one opportunity to tell the truth clearly as a blessing to someone else before this day is done!