Honesty

How honest is honest? I learned long ago that being honest is critical to maintaining a healthy spiritual condition [read that “relationship with Jesus and others”]. For too many years my conversations veered off-center in order to look good to someone else, and now with over 38 years of sobriety behind me, it is still just as vital for me to avoid any shading of the truth. I figure the Lord always sees my heart anyway, and I get a dark brown feeling inside whenever I do the “little white lie” or “convenient exaggeration.” Sometimes the truth can hurt others, though, and then I must make a conscious decision whether or not to tell the WHOLE truth. This is not always easy, but then life was never promised to be always easy. The criterion for such decisions is usually “what’s the kindest thing to do?”, but even then—for my own emotional integrity—I decide that putting honesty first will prove to be best in the long run. The balance between sins of omission and sins of commission is occasionally maddeningly delicate. And then there’s the ultimate question: “What does Jesus want me to do in this situation?” As trite as it sounds, that usually solves the problem. Do you agree?