My lips will not speak wickedness, Nor my tongue utter deceit. Job 27:4 NKJV.

A Little White Lie by: J.Harkins

What are little white lies?  These are the lies that everyone has been led to believe are not really lies if they prevent people from being hurt. This is what people call stretching the truth for the good of all concerned. Some people believe that the little white lie does not hurt anyone. The truth is that it does!  The person that it hurts the most, is you!

There is an old saying that goes: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”  As I pondered that old saying it brought back to my memory a story I read about how Satan captures us and binds us up.  It went like this, a minister was instructing some grade school students about the devil and how he catches us and holds us.  He used a very interesting prop; it was a spool of thread.  The minister began by asking the class who was the strongest young man in the class. A big husky young man stood up and raised his hand.  The minister called him forward. He asked the young man, as he pulled out one strand from the spool of thread. Young man can you break this piece of thread?  The young man quickly nodded his head; he took hold of the string and quickly broke it. The minister smiled and he said, very good young man.  He then proceeded to ask a very small young lady in the audience.  She was the littlest student in the class. He asked her to come forward. He handed her the whole spool of thread and told her to do exactly as I say.  He told the young man to put his hands together and told the young lady to begin to wrap the thread around the young man’s hands until he tells her to stop.  As the young lady proceeded to do exactly as he said the minister turned to the rest of the class and began to teach them about God.  Several minutes past and the young lady replied, I am finished. She had wound the entire spool of thread around the young man’s hands. The minister then turned to the young man and told him now break out of that if you are strong enough.  The young man tried as hard as he could to break free of the thread, but he could not.  The minister then took a pair of scissors and cut the thread so that the young man was free.  He then began to explain that this is how Satan catches us in his web of deceit. One strand at a time, one little white lie will lead to another and another, and another. Lying is just like any other addictive behaviors. Once we start we continue. I came to understand in my life, that once you tell one lie you have to tell a thousand to cover that one, and so on, and so on. Be not deceived my brothers and sisters, there is no such thing as a little white lie. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”John 8:32 NKJV.

Satan begins his deception, not in big things but in small ways, it can start with that little white lie, then we tell another then another until lying becomes a way of life for us, and then our witness becomes suspect. We find ourselves bound up in all that deceit, unable to move, dead in our trespasses and sin.

Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Eph 4:25 NKJV. Speaking the truth to all should be given the utmost priority in our lives. As I write this I am remembering that a lie always changes each time we tell it, but the truth remains the same. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, Eph 6:14 NKJV. Paul said that we must tighten the belt of truth in our lives, let it be the only thing that comes out of our mouths!

To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful. (Edward Murrow)