Recently, I planned a surprise party for my husband’s 40th birthday. Since he married me and knew what I was capable of, I was given stern warnings about spending money on his behalf. I told him to quit being so humble and let me do the planning. The basis of the "cover up" was that we would be taking a much needed trip just the two of us. But my real plan was to have a surprise party with lots of his friends and family. About 2 months prior to the party, I ran into a problem.
How am I going to pay for this event without him knowing? This guy handles money and investments for a living. He micro-manages me in all areas of my spending, AND HE WOULD NEVER AGREE TO LET ME SPEND A DIME ON HIM FOR HIS BIRTHDAY. I knew where the money would come from, but I just couldn’t get it into my possession without telling him. Since I am so bright, I decided to open up a secret credit card. When I filled out the application for my card, I thought it was a neat little option to upload a picture to personalize the card. I knew just the picture I would use. My honoree and handsome son Graham’s baby picture was uploaded successfully, and I anxiously awaited my secret credit card in the mail.
Now I have another problem. We live in a community where our mailboxes are at the front entrance and we have only 1 mail key which is in the possession of my husband. Of course on the day I forgot to look at the mail on the counter before he did, he found my credit card envelope.
Oops.
He proceeds to firmly and pleasantly, fitting to his style of communication, question me about this unopened credit card envelope in his hands.
More lies.
I told him nonchalantly, "That’s probably just a credit card OFFER."
And he says, "I know what a credit card offer looks like, Sarah."
"No really, now they send you the card and everything. You just have to activate it if you want."
I’m sure you can see where this is heading. So my hubby opens the card only to find his SON’S SMILING FACE looking back at him. The Graham Card totally got me busted. Ok, so I couldn’t come clean on all the "fabrications" at this point because it wasn’t time for his surprise party! I tried to patch up the situation with a sweet smile and a, "I just wanted to plan our trip without you knowing the details."
Covering up the truth is absolutely exhausting. And unfortunately "cover ups" are usually not related to sweet surprise birthday parties. The news is full of sad stories of greed and moral failure with a single common thread- untruthfulness. Being untruthful can also be called more bluntly: a lie, a bald-faced lie, lying by omission, white lie, lie of necessity, emergency lie, evasion, perjury, slander, half-truth, exaggeration, stretching the truth, underestimating costs, manipulating financial statements, etc… The fine art of lying in its many different forms can be seen as an effective strategy used to gain wealth,
build social status, or even attract a special someone. Especially when it comes to money, people can rationalize just about anything. It’s amazing how many shades of "untruth" people can actually be ok with. And most of the time, it occurs with our spouse or the people closest to us.
In Proverbs 17: 19 and 20, it states that "the person who courts sin marries trouble…"
And "he who has a willful and contrary tongue will fall into calamity."
If we allow ourselves to cover up or exaggerate truth in small ways, we are courting sin and it will eventually cause a destructive end to our friendships, families, and careers. Many people daily conceal truth or exaggerate details and don’t see the problem with it. Some people even "look the other way" when they know untruthfulness has taken place. This is because being untruthfulness sears the conscious.
Thomas Jefferson said, "He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual."
Psalm 15:2 says we should, "Walk straight, act right, tell the truth."
As Christians, we should strive to be honest in our representation of the "details" in our business transactions, in our conversations about others, in why we really didn’t show up for work, etc… If we can’t be found trustworthy, who can? If we can’t be known for having integrity in our dealings with people, how can we ever expect the message of Christ to be received by us to the world? Integrity is a must.
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