I can’t believe you said that!

It’s a myth that we’re all searching for the truth. If you don’t believe that, think about how you might feel if you were served a consistent diet of unadulterated truth.

Maybe a little more like Jim’s wife …

It was Friday, and quitting time, when Jim asked, “Boss, have you got any extra work I can do tonight?”

“Sure do,” answered the boss, “but I can’t pay you any overtime.”

“That’s okay, I just don’t want to go home,” said Jim.

“Why not?” asked the boss.

“Well, I’ve been in the doghouse since last night,” Jim confessed.

“I see,” responded the boss, “Why? What did you do to deserve that?”

“I still don’t know,” Jim said, shaking his head in wonder. “It must be one of those women things. I was minding my own business relaxing in front of the TV. My wife enters the room and asks, ‘What’s on the TV?’ And honestly, I swear all I said was ‘Dust!’ And she’s been mad at me ever since!”

In this instance, the wife found fault with her husband’s truthfulness, and forfeited her companionship.

Most of us would immediately counter the husband wasn’t very “gracious,” but this silly story does shine a little light on the fact we often aren’t fond of truth in its purest form.

One reason is because truth can hurt. Not in a bad way, it can just deliver a blow that we have to deal with, which is likely why the Apostle Paul directs us to “… speak the truth in love …” (Eph. 4:15). The problem is, we’ve come to think of truth told in love as meaning truth skewed to something we would rather hear, something that doesn’t land a blow, challenge our positions or behaviors, or convict us.

Or remind us of the dust.

Are you open to the truth? Or do those who speak the truth in your life wind up in the doghouse? On the flip side, do you speak the truth in love? Or are you wreckless with how you communicate truth to others?

Scotty