Just a Little White Lie

I lie all the time.  It's a problem, I admit it. But while we're admitting things can you fess up to telling some fibs too?  It would at least make me feel better--even if you're lying. 

Now there are the lies that are so white they are practically invisible and then there are the big blaring red ones that you can't keep covered up no matter how hard you try.  Those are the life changers.  There have only been two life changing lies in my life, and after the lie slipped from my lips I couldn't believe I had done it.  The lie just shot through my mind like a pinball as I tried to figure out how to keep such a lie hidden in my life.  In the end, I couldn't.  I came clean and was amazingly forgiven each time. 

We know that these lies are wrong.  But what about those little white lies, the ones we've been trained to tell since we were children.  Let's face it, if a girl asks her boyfriend if she looks fat in her jeans he basically has to lie, or suffer her wrath.  Is it wrong to lie about that?  It's not like she doesn't already know the answer to her own question. 

The lies that I am most concerned with right now however are the lies I tell myself.  I have started to feel the pull of these "harmless" lies as I strive to be the woman God created me to be.  By nature I am somewhat layed-back, but also shy.  Because of this shy streak and my easy going nature it's easy for me to just go with the flow instead of speaking up.

I was recently visiting some friends in Boston and each night we planned the next day, which was a bit of a fiasco. Toward the end of the week my friend asked if I realized that instead of saying what I wanted to do I would just list ideas.  At the time I brushed it off and told her that I wanted to do all of those things.  However, since my trip I have been shown just how many times I hold back from saying what I want to do.  I want to be the easy going friend, not the demanding shrew. Harmless?  Maybe.  Probably not.  These little lies begin to permeate into everything. God's showing me new places they are hidden every day.

Some of you are probably thinking, "I never lie, I always say exactly what I am thinking with no filter." To you I say, with all love and affection, maybe you should lie a little.  We don't always need to know that we're having a bad hair day or that orange is a terrible color on us.