Do you solemnly swear to the tell the truth, the whole truth …

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother wash the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in striking contrast to her otherwise brunette head.

“Mom, why are some of your hairs white?” she asked.

“Well,” replied the mother, “every time you do something wrong and make me cry or feel unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.”

The little girl thought for a moment about what her mother said, then suddenly asked, “So how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?”

Many adults are guilty of doing what this mother did: taking license with the truth to manipulate others under the guise of acting in their best interests. But tweaking the truth is never in the best interests of anyone and such behavior will always come back to bite you.

Even many who profess to be Christian have a daily practice of bending and twisting the truth as their way of trying to manipulate outcomes. It’s a practice that has been around since the creation of humanity, when the father of lies tweaked God’s instructions to Adam and Eve to manipulate outcomes for evil intent.

“For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies,” John 8:44.

A practice of lying — or any kind of distortion of the truth — cannot be a part of those who actually take on the character of Christ. For Jesus, speaking the truth was a simple concept:

“Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one,” Matthew 5:37.

When it comes to speaking and living the truth, whose character do you reflect: the Father of light (God), or the father of lies?

Scotty