Why Can’t The Truth Be Enough
Posted: Sunday, July 13, 2008
by Susan Thom
Everyone has their own opinion of the same situation, the same person, the same political candidates, the same laws, the same taxes we all have to pay, the same child rearing, and yet, the truth is stretched, twisted, changed, and made to conform to whomever is telling "the story." It is only a wise person who knows everyone sees things to the best of their interest, true or not, stretched or not, and twisted or not. Only the wise will take this into consideration when being told untruths, and only the fool believes everything they hear.
Everyone thinks, acts, and does things differently. It is human nature. However, there is only one truth to any given situation or act or thought. The bogeyman is not in the closet, no matter how many times you have to convince your three year old that it is not waiting for the lights to go out so it can pounce on them. Do they believe it to be so? Yes. Is it so? No. Point taken. The simple truth seems to allude so very many, where lies and manipulations are the most they can think of, the truth is too hard to understand.
It is not the mind that can't decipher the facts, but the heart and soul. You watch your son strike out while up at bat, but you argue with the umpire that the last pitch was outside. Everyone else sides with the umpire, including the umpire and your son! Who is right and who is wrong? Is it just too hard for a mother to see her son strike out, so she immediately tries to manipulate the situation in his favor? There are repercussions to going against the truth. In this case, it may be a very embarrassed son who asks you not to come to their games anymore.
It is the way of the world for all it's people to see things differently, but when seeing those things in a way that is not balanced or true, and spreading those thoughts, and defaming someone's character, there will be consequences, in this life or the next. If you see a man get out of his car at your neighbor's every morning, and spread it all through the town that this woman is having an affair, only to find out, once the damage has been done, that he is the handyman redoing their master bathroom, you will be the one who suffers the consequences, not your neighbor who has done nothing wrong but want a new bathroom.
When we learn to evaluate situations and people's feelings and actions, before we damage their character and cause them heartache and pain, we will always be in the right. When we put our spin on what we know nothing about, such as the handyman, we cause unnecessary pain to others, and in one way or another, we will pay the price. And we deserve it. Why do we feel the need to hurt our neighbor? What is lacking in our life that our main concern is to hurt another? Do we not have enough to deal with in our own lives? Do we get a thrill to be the one who shakes everything up?
A man sees his neighbor in the next condo walking his dog every morning for two weeks. No dogs are allowed. He tells the super, and the man is served with an eviction notice. He has no where else to go and his world is turned upside down. He can walk to work, since he is still saving for a car, and now what will he do? Lose his job? End up on the street? He tries to explain to the super that this is a friend's dog he is sitting for until tomorrow, and it will be gone. "Oh, that's what they all say." The super doesn't budge.
The next morning, the nosy neighbor sees a car pull into the next door driveway. A man gets out, goes into the condo for about a half hour, and returns to his car with his dog, his dog's bowl, food, and leash. The man tells his wife what he's done, you know, the wife who told everybody her neighbor was having an affair? Birds of a feather flock together. They were both wrong, and the damage they did was uncalled for and unnecessary, and never based in truth.
They caused pain, confusion, heartache and anxiety and none of it was the truth. I've always tried to see both sides of the story, especially with my kids. If they did something I didn't like, I wanted to know why? In most cases, my opinion of why they did something, was different from their intentions. Once I had the facts, and the truth, I could respond accordingly. Nothing good will ever come from being dishonest, manipulative, greedy, deceitful, and revengeful.
An example, my daughter's Barbie's head was lying on the family room floor. Instinctually, I wanted to blame my son. When I found out the truth, it was merely an accident. She had left it on the chair he sits on to play Nintendo, and when he sat down, without looking, crack! He was always an honest kid, and my daughter did say she put it on her chair while she ran to get something. Case closed.
Misinformation can cause so much damage if not investigated for one's self. He could have been banned from his game for two days, been miserable on his summer vacation, because it "seemed" to me that he broke his sister's doll on purpose. I would have not been forming an opinion based on facts, just what I thought in my head. Where did we forget to think, investigate, and get to the truth! Where did we forget to keep our mouths shut before we know the facts? Where did we forget to make up our own minds instead of being lead by others?
Are we that insecure and self centered that we begin to take life too easily, and let our worse characteristics, which we know about, by the way, govern our lives, while we hurt others? What type of life is this? It must be stopped. There are some who will do the work to improve and grow and do the right thing, and there will be others who will stay the same out of pure laziness and righteousness. That's okay, until they start infecting others. They may act in any manner they choose on Earth, but what will they do when this life is over?
This Article has been viewed 182 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Sue, another great article! "Nothing good will ever come from being dishonest, manipulative, greedy, deceitful, and revengeful." So true! I 'try' to give the benefit of the doubt while gathering the facts then pray for guidance. Sometimes, the dishonesty and deceptive is so blatant, prayer isn't necessary! Unless you count praying for the person. *laughing softly*Happy Sunday and take good care, my friend!Please log in to respond to this comment.thank you avis,it's a shame that even though nothing good will ever come out of those character traits, there are those that still persist.thank you for reading and commenting,i appreciate your time and interest,my best,suePlease log in to respond to this comment.
Yeah Susan, people are afraid to see the truth. They would rather live a lie, they simply have no conscience.Please log in to respond to this comment.
Again I forgot to log in. I'm the anonymous above.Please log in to respond to this comment.would you believe me if i told you i knew it was you before i scrolled down?thanks, david. i appreciate the time you put into reading and thinking and remarking about my articles.my best regards,suePlease log in to respond to this comment.
Ms. Thom, that was a great article. Lies have destroyed or negatively impacted so many lives. I've never really figured out why people will believe a lie quicker than the truth. But just like my Mom used to say, "If you tell one lie, you'll have to tell two but the truth is constant. It never changes".Please log in to respond to this comment.hi roschelle,
thank you for reading and commenting.i have a hard time tolerating lying.i think it stems from fear of what will happen if you tell the truth.stronger people, with more self confidence, can stand up for their truth, firm in the fact of it being the truth, because it is! and also strong enough to face the consequences.i appreciate you stopping by,
best regards,suePlease log in to respond to this comment.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.