I’ve been thinking about half-truths a lot lately.
Mostly because I received some recently, but also because I then turned around and fed somebody else my own half-truth yesterday. And today, I couldn’t get it out of my head.
I was asked a question I didn’t have the liberty to answer, so rather than saying, “I wish I had an answer for you, but right now I don’t”, I rambled on with some dumb excuse that was only partly true. I could see the slight confusion on the face of the person I was talking to – it didn’t really sound convincing to her, because…it wasn’t.
It wasn’t really the truth, and she could tell.
So why did I do it? Well, for one thing, my pride didn’t want to admit I didn’t know the answer. But also, I just didn’t know how to answer. I had no clue what to say.
Why?
Why is it hard to tell the truth in that type of situation
I have a friend who is brilliant, and has been using simple, direct honesty in her parenting. When her little boy asks big life questions which are just not meant for small children to understand, she lovingly explains to him, “That is a question I will answer when you are older. I know you are curious right now, but as your mommy, I need you to trust me when I say that it’s not time yet for you to know the answer to that question.”
I will give you an answer when I’m able to.
I think Satan must jump for joy when we communicate badly. When we stumble our way through partial truths that just don’t make sense.
I want to speak in a way that is simple, straight-forward, and kind , and just get a lot -more direct. We seem to think “direct” is painful. But when it’s done out of love, I think it would work quite nicely.
Ordinary Days 