Truth-Telling
Bringing a spiritual perspective to world events and daily life.
There is a yearning within each one of us to express God. Because of this, there's a fundamental desire to be truthful, as God is Truth itself.
We may not consciously even realize this desire; it may be embedded deep in the recesses of a thought accustomed to less than genuine honesty. But few people are really comfortable with themselves when they are caught up in lies. All of God's children have a natural desire to be good and truthful.
When people fail they sometimes cry out for forgiveness. This is a needed first step. It forces us to improve humanly. It impels us to learn who God made us to be: His honest expression. Recognizing where we fell short and vowing to be more truthful frees us to find the integrity we do indeed have from God.
Do you love yourself enough to want to be a living testament to God's undeviating standard of integrity? This opens the door to forgiveness of past wrongs. Your nature as God's expression is not tarnished. When you understand this, others will begin to see you in a new light. This is the light of Truth that enabled the Christian Saviour, Jesus, to heal. And it will end even the tiniest inclination to be less than honest.
There are no "innocent lies." We are either expressing God, who is all Truth, or we are not. The absolute fact that we each live in God means it is impossible to act in ways that are not truthful. This fact must have human expression. Being honest at all times makes us feel good and right. It makes us happy with ourselves. It aligns us with God-with the power to do right.
God is leading each one of us in a path of righteous behavior, and it is possible to follow it. You cannot lack an honest nature or the desire to express it. Why? Because God is all-power and is causing you today to be His reflection.
Having corrected our own indiscretions with the prayer to express Truth, we can also enlarge our capacity to forgive others and to have compassion for their struggles with truth-telling. To know God strengthens the desire to do right, and simultaneously increases the ability to express mercy, which follows the pattern of His love.
You can help family, friends, and even perfect strangers (who are no strangers to God), by accepting only the highest standard of integrity for them and from them. And if they seem to fail, you can show them the same forgiveness essential to your own self-improvement. They may hold a mistaken sense of themselves. So you can silently affirm that God causes His children to be good, like Him. Because of this, they cannot be fooled or cheated out of their God-given right to be truthful. Affirming this is prayer that blesses people. It is living the Golden Rule as given by Christ Jesus: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7:12).
The truth of God is a law to men and women and children. This law is self-enforcing. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of the laws of God, Christian Science, wrote these words: "Truth, life, and love are the only legitimate and eternal demands upon man; they are spiritual laws enforcing obedience and punishing disobedience" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 159). God is punishing the error of disobedience. But God is always causing us to go forward, to make progress. No evil can bring to a halt that natural progress. Another statement by Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook says this: "Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified. If at present satisfied with wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 240).
God is causing us to know our integrity. And to see evidence of that integrity manifested everywhere is progressive.
We can do nothing
against the truth,
but for the truth.
II Corinthians 13:8